The Paleontological Heritage of the Acre (Amazonia, Brazil): Contribution Towards a National Paleontological Database

Abstract

Acre State is located in the southwest of Amazonia (Brazil) and is internationally known for its fossiliferous sites which have yielded well-preserved fossils of major relevance to the understanding of the Cenozoic paleofauna of South America, mainly during the Miocene. In order to preserve this paleontological heritage and to study the material from the formations outcropping across south western Amazonia, the Paleontological Research Laboratory was created in the 1980s at the Federal University of Acre (acronym UFAC in Portuguese) and houses a collection including over 4500 catalogued specimens (mainly invertebrates, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals) and a small Museum open to the scientific community and to a wider society. This paper aims to identify the geoheritage value of the fossil record of Acre, which is represented by material collected from the Solimoes Formation (Miocene to Pliocene) over the last three decades and stored at the UFAC. The qualitative evaluation system used, which integrates both its scientific and social uses, can also be applied to other Brazilian collections, in order to create a National Paleontological Database, similar to that already developed for Geological and Paleobiological Sites.