Museu Nacional Research Articles

O retrato de um menino Bororo: narrativas sobre o destino dos índios e o horizonte político dos museus, séculos XIX e XXI

As coleções etnográficas, uma vez retiradas das aldeias e dos seus contextos de utilização cotidiana e ritual, tendem a ser transformadas em abstrações sociológicas, nas quais a história e a reflexividade estão congeladas. A análise de uma pintura de um menino Bororo, localizada no Museu Nacional, permite reencontrar estórias esquecidas e encobertas, apresentando uma abordagem alternativa que propõe uma historicização radical e discute o jogo de forças que estão em torno da aquisição, classificação e exibição de objetos etnográficos.

Notas sobre as séries-tipo de Holoaden bradei B. Lutz e Holoaden luederwaldti Miranda-Ribeiro (Anura, Brachycephalidae)

A série-tipo de Holoaden bradei B. Lutz, 1958 depositada no Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, é examinada. Apesar da referência a "Tipo, 2 Cotipos, 84 Parátipos" (somando 87 exemplares) e a "90 espécimes medidos" na descrição original, apenas 74 exemplares foram encontrados. Desde que nenhum exemplar foi originalmente numerado, o holótipo (ou "tipo") e os parátipos da espécie e sua localidade-tipo são atualizadas. A prévia designação do lectótipo de Holoaden luederwaldti Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920, é reafirmada.

Tijuca National Park: two pioneering restorationist initiatives in Atlantic forest in southeastern Brazil

As a contribution to the environmental history of the Tijuca National Park, we report on two pioneering restorationist initiatives and list its the mammal species now found in this urban park. The Tijuca National Park (TNP), a 3,200 ha urban park covered by secondary tropical forest, is located within Rio de Janeiro, in southeastern Brazil. The two restorationist initiatives were a pioneer tropical forest restoration project in the nineteenth century and a fauna management project in the 70' s. The mammal list presented here was based on specimens in the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro and on publications. The mammal community of TNP is composed of 49 species, of which 11 are on regional red lists, and four are on the 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Occurrence of these threatened species and the park history itself made the TNP a priority site for studying conservation, management, and monitoring. Besides maintaining fauna and flora (including threatened species) diversity, the park benefits the population of Rio de Janeiro by providing water, green areas, and recreational and touristic opportunities.

Gestão democrática do patrimônio cultural em São Francisco do Sul (SC)

To think about cultural heritage democratic management of a place, whatever its nature is, brings about a series of discussions, mainly in what concernes its social legitimacy, as being day after day dialoguing with social and economical issues, land pressures and many other factors. The present article will mention the case of Sao Francisco do Sul, Santa Catarina, the economic and social character existing project, ruled by the cultural heritage preservation, as well as the actions carried through for governmental and non governmental institutions with the purpose of democratizating the access to this heritage with emphasis to the work carried out by the Museu Nacional do Mar.

Descriptions of three new species of Odonata from Brazil

Three new species are described here: Oxyagrion zielmae sp. nov. (Coenagrionidae) from one male collected at Costa Rica, Mato Grosso do Sul state; Lestes fernandoi sp.nov. (Lestidae) from a pair from Imperatriz, Maranhão state and Perithemis capixaba sp. nov. (Libellulidae) from one male from Mutum Preto, Espírito Santo state, all deposited at Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Oxyagrion zielmae is similar to O. pavidum Selys, 1876 but differs by having cerci and paraprocts the same size, pterostigma long and narrow and terminal segment of genital ligula with the two lobes larger than in O. pavidum. Lestes fernandoi is compared with L. auritus Hagen in Selys, 1862; L. bipupillatus Calvert, 1909; L. dichrostigma Calvert, 1909; Lestes falcifer Sjöstedt, 1918; L. forficula Rambur, 1842; L. minutus Selys, 1862 and L. paulistus Calvert, 1909. The new species is most similar to Lestes falcifer and L. paulistus, but differ by the peculiar color of pterothorax, caudal appendages and genital ligula. Perithemis capixaba is similar to P. mooma Kirby, 1889 but differs by having the first segment of vesica spermalis slowly rounded, in P. mooma this structure is trapezoidal. Illustrated keys to new species are included.

Cordiluroides Albuquerque from Costa Rica: first records, descriptions and taxonomic changes (Diptera, Muscidae, Coenosiinae)

Cordiluroides Albuquerque is a genus of Neotropical Coenosiinae (Muscidae), known from six species. The genus is here recorded for the first time from Costa Rica, on the basis of three species: C. listrata Albuquerque, 1954, C. insularis (Willliston, 1896) and C. bistriata (Wulp, 1896) sp. rev.. We provide a key for the identification of these Costa Rican species, redescribe and illustrate their external morphological characters and terminalia. C. bistriata and C. vittifera (Stein, 1904) are both considered to be good species and are re-instated from the synonymy of C. insularis. The type material of C. listrata (Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro), of C. insularis and C. bistriata (The Natural History Museum, London) and of C. vittifera (Museum fur Naturkunde, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin) has been examined.

As propostas da Seção Geológica da Comissão Científica de Exploração (1856)

In 1856, at Brazil, were create the first scientific commition with brazilian naturalists only, to do a scientific exploration in the north of the country and collect objects to the Museu Nacional, in Rio de Janeiro. In these paper I made the analysis of the Traveling Instruction of the Geological and Mineralogical Section, written by Guilherme Schuch de Capanema.

Pollen analysis from the resin used for embalming a mummy from the Roman period of I century AC – Museu Nacional (MN/UFRJ), Brazil

Human embalming was practiced widely by the Egyptians using resins extracted from shrubs, trees, or by the use of propolis – also known as bee’s glue. These resins that formed from terpenic derivates, retain a variety of remains: the epidermis of plants, grains of sand, pieces of coal, and grains of pollen.Pollen analyses were made on a mummy belonging to the Egyptian collection of the Museu Nacional: the “Singer of the Temple of Amon”, dated around 750 AD. This is a rare mummy from the Roman period because the limbs were buried separate from the body. We can find only seven mummies buried in this way in the European collections. Our results expand our knowledge about the use of plants which were given as offering or presented at the moment of burial, as indicated by pollen grains through the time.

Chalcopteryx machadoi sp. n. da região norte do Brasil (Zygoptera: Polythoridae) com uma chave para as espécies do gênero

A new species, is described and illustrated from a single male collected in the state of Pará, Brazil (holotype male: Santo Antonio do Tauá, 8.I.1999) and deposited in the Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This species can be distinguished from others by the color pattern of the wings. In Chalcopteryx machadoi sp. n. the four wings are hyaline. An identification key is provided for the species of the genus.

Diversity of Quaternary Bats from Serra da Mesa (State of Goiás, Brazil)

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the taxonomic diversity of fossil and extant bats from the region of the Serra da Mesa in the State of Goias, Central Brazil. Quaternary fossils were obtained from four limestone caves, namely Igrejinha, Carneiro, Nossa Senhora Aparecida, and Itambé. Information on extant bat fauna used for comparison were obtained from literature and from the collection of Museu Nacional (Rio de Janeiro). The taxonomic identification of the fragments was based on a comparative study of the masticatory apparatus of extant and fossil bat species. A total of 430 fragments were identified, comprising 27 species: Anoura geoffroyi, Artibeus sp., Carollia sp., Chrotopterus auritus, Desmodus rotundus, Desmodus sp., Emballonuridae sp. indet., Eptesicus/ Histiotus, Glossophaga sp., Lionycteris spurrelli, Lonchorhina aurita, Micronycteris megalotis, Mimon bennetti, Mimon crenulatum, Molossidae sp. indet., Myotis sp., Natalus stramineus, Phylloderma sp. n., Phyllostomus discolor, Phyllostomus hastatus, Platyrrhinus sp., Pteronotus davyi, Pteronotus parnelli, Sturnira sp., Tonatia sp. n., Lophostoma silvicola, and Trachops cirrhosus. Phyllostomidae was the most speciose family, but surprisingly most of the fossil fragments were attributed to the families Natalidae and Mormoopidae. Both of which are rare in the area today. The population reduction of these hot-humid-cave dwelling species (Natalus and Pteronotus) may suggest the climate of the area was warmer and wetter during some interval of the Late Pleistocene or Early Holocene. This study presents the first record of the genera Lionycteris, Lonchorhina and Trachops from the Quaternary of South America. The diversity of Chiroptera found in Serra da Mesa is equivalent to that described for Bahia, which heretofore has the most abundant record for Quaternary bats from South America.

Estudo e tratamento de uma casula do Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

A chasuble from the textile collection of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga underwent a laboratorial study prior to the conservation treatment.The analyses gave vegetable fibres for the support layers used in the embroidered strips (orphreys), in the applied embroidered figures, in the volume in-filling threads of those applied embroidered figures, and the intermediate linning support layer. The patterned silk, the back linning, and the embroidery threads of the orphreys are made of ungummed silk. Through X-ray fluorescence spectrometry the main component of the metallic embroidery threads was found to be silver, although other metals were also detected. These results together with the observations made using a metallographic microscope and a scanning electron microscope suggest that the golden threads should be gold plated silver, which was commonly used between the 15th and 17th Centuries. This paper also presents a description of the condition survey and treatment intervention, which includes the application of a nylon support as a consolidation method on the embroidered figures, opposed to the traditional method, which was thought to be inadequate for the present case.

Redescrição de Prorachias bristowei Mello-Leitão, 1924 (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Nemesiidae)

Prorachias Mello-Leitão, 1924 é conhecido apenas pela espécie-tipo P. bristowei Mello-Leitão, 1924, descrita com base em uma fêmea do estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. A descrição é sumária e incompleta, sendo omitidos caracteres importantes como o formato da espermateca. O exemplar-tipo, que deveria estar depositado no Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, não foi localizado e está provavelmente perdido. O estudo de material coletado pelo Projeto "Biodiversidade de Arachnida e Myriapoda do Estado de São Paulo" e de material depositado na coleção do Instituto Butantan permitiu complementar a diagnose do gênero, redescrever a fêmea e descrever pela primeira vez o macho desta espécie. Além disto, dados sobre biologia são apresentados e a distribuição geográfica da espécie é ampliada para os estados de Goiás, Minas Gerais e São Paulo.

Lamelofones de Moçambique e Angola. 2002. Arquivo de sons, Museu Nacional de Etnologia ASMNE 001. Distributed by Tradisom. Recorded by Gerhard Kubik, Moya A. Malamusi, et al. Annotated by Gerhard Kubik. Produced by José Moças. 69 pages of notes in Portuguese and English. 31 B/W photographs, 1 drawing, 2 musical notations, 2 maps. 1 compact disc, 27 tracks (71:00). Recorded

Lamelofones de Moçambique e Angola. 2002. Arquivo de sons, Museu Nacional de Etnologia ASMNE 001. Distributed by Tradisom. Recorded by Gerhard Kubik, Moya A. Malamusi, et al. Annotated by Gerhard Kubik. Produced by José Moças. 69 pages of notes in Portuguese and English. 31 B/W photographs, 1 drawing, 2 musical notations, 2 maps. 1 compact disc, 27 tracks (71:00). Recorded

Description of a new species of Lauromacromia Geijskes, 1970 (Odonata: Corduliidae) from Southeastern Brazil

Lauromacromia picinguaba sp. nov. is described and illustrated based on a series composed by a male and four females from Picinguaba, Ubatuba, S o Paulo state, Brazil, all obtained from reared larvae. The type material is deposited in the Museu Nacional and the Instituto de Biologia, UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro. This is the first description of a female and the southernmost record for the genus. A key to the genera of Corduliidae occurring in Brazil is appended.

Ecology, Systematics and Biogeographical Relationships of Dinosaurs, Including a New Theropod, from the Santana Formation (?Albian, Early Cretaceous) of Brazil

Although rare, dinosaurs are well preserved in calcareous nodules of the Santana Formation (Early Cretaceous, ?Albian) of the Araripe Basin, in northeastern Brazil. So far, including only a spinosauroid and three coelurosaurs, the dinosaur fauna appears depauperate. High theropod diversity in assemblages where other dinosaurs are rare or absent is not unique to the Santana Formation. It is seen also in several other assemblages, including Solnhofen and the Maevarano Formation of Madagascar. We consider several factors, including the occurrence of intraguild predation, the possibility that small theropods could subsist in marginal environments, and reliance on coastal resources, that may have been responsible for this apparent ecological imbalance. A new coelurosaur from the Santana Formation, here formally named Mirischia asymmetrica, is shown to be distinct from Santanaraptor placidus [Kellner, A.W.A. (1999) “Short note on a new dinosaur (Theropoda, Coelurosauria) from the Santana Formation (Romualdo Member, Albian) northeastern Brazil”, Boletim do Museu Nacional, Nova Serie, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 49, 1–8]. Other theropods from the Santana Formation are briefly reviewed. Mirischia is a compsognathid, more similar to the European Compsognathus than to the Asian Sinosauropteryx.

"In all homes, the moral comfort of science and of art": the Revista Nacional de Educação and scientific dissemination in Brazil (1932-34)

Between 1932 and 1934, the journal Revista Nacional de Educação was published by Rio de Janeiro's National Museum, under the auspices of hte Brazilian Ministry of Education and Public Health and under the direction of Roquette-Pinto. Its main goal was to disseminate information on science, history, and art among a wide-ranging Brazilian public. The articles were written by the intellectuals of the day, many of whom were scientists at the Museu Nacional. The Revista also published translations of excerpts by a number of travelers. Every issue was published at a low cost, with a significant number of copies. The journal was touted as the initiative of a renewed Republic, part of a broader strategy of inaugurating new relations between government and a population to be educated. It defined itself as "a spiritual milestone in the Brazilian nationality" in tune with the ideal of a State whose educational initiatives were meant to constitute a people and a nation.

Joaquim Mattoso Câmara Jr: um inovador

Neste texto são revistas as diferentes áreas de interesse de Mattoso Câmara - fonologia, morfologia, estilística - e enfatizados seus esforços para a institucionalização dos estudos lingüísticos no Brasil: a criação de uma disciplina em Lingüística Geral na década de 1930; o estabelecimento de um Setor Lingüístico no Museu Nacional, no Rio de Janeiro, em 1958; a fundação da ABRALIN, em 1969. O legado de Mattoso é revisitado do ponto de vista de quem foi sua aluna e testemunhou o percurso que, a partir do mestre, toda uma geração de lingüistas pioneiros percorreu. Entre outros: Carlos Eduardo Falcão Uchôa, Miriam Lemle, Leda Bisol, Jean Pierre Angenot, Paulino Vandresen, Eunice Pontes, Brian Head, Cléa Rameh, Eurico Back e a própria Yonne Leite.

Histovariability in bones of two pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the Santana Formation, Araripe Basin, Brazil: preliminary results

Abstract Thin sections of pterosaur bones have not been extensively studied so far. Until now mainly isolated bones were the subject of this type of analysis. Here we present preliminary results of the histological analysis of two pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the Romualdo and Crato Members of the Santana Formation. The first specimen (Museu Nacional, MN 4809-V) comprises both wings (from humerus to the third phalanx of the fourth digit) and one hindlimb (tibia, fibula and pes). The second (MN 6527-V) consists of a partial skeleton with the incomplete left wing (humerus, radius, ulna, carpals, pteroid, wing metacarpal, two phalanges of the fourth digit) and fragments of one hindlimb (complete tibia and proximal articulation of the femur). Thin sections of the diaphyseal portion of each bone were ground in transverse, longitudinal and oblique orientation and the histological structures were compared. The following features can vary in the first observed specimen (MN 4809-V): presence of primary and secondary tissues in the cortex; absence or presence and position of lines of arrested growth; resorption of primary structures. These variations in different bones of the same individual represent differential growth rates. The second specimen (MN 6527-V) is well vascularized and has fibro-lamellar bone indicative of rapid growth in the thin section of the radius, ulna and first phalanx of the fourth digit. This last feature is very similar to the condition observed in most living birds.

Egyptian Mummies at the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, Lisbon: A Proposed Programme of Study

Introduction This project is a multidisciplinary study of mummified remains held in the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia in Lisbon, Portugal. The project will employ a range of bioarchaeological methodologies (Larsen 1997) in order to derive the maximum possible information from the remains, including age, sex and stature determination, dietary reconstruction, biological affinity, pathology and childhood health. The cultural context of human and animal mummification will also be addressed. The Lisbon Mummy Project (LMP) is headed by an international team of specialists from the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, ERA Arqueologia, the Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia (Lisbon), the Institute of Archaeology (UCL), The British Museum and The American University in Cairo. The project aims to study the mummified remains using non-destructive and selected invasive analytical methods, including visual observation, conventional radiography, Computed Axial Tomography (CAT) scanning, endoscopy, histology and genetic analyses.

Corpos estranhos animados em otorrinolaringologia

Forma de estudo: Clínico retrospectivo. Material e método: Foram reportados 56 casos de corpos estranhos animados em orelhas (55 insetos e 1 aracnídeo) e 1 caso (inseto) em fossas nasais. O material foi coletado no setor de Emergência do serviço de ORL do Hospital Municipal Souza Aguiar, no centro do Rio de Janeiro, entre os anos de 1998 e 2000, e identificado por zoólogos do Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. A maior parte dos casos ocorreu em Nova Iguaçu e Campo Grande, sendo analisados os quadros clínicos e as complicações ocorridas. Resultado: Os insetos são: 30,35% Blattaria (baratas); 25% Diptera (moscas e mosquitos); 12,5% Lepidoptera (borboletas e mariposas); 10,7% Coleoptera (besouros); 7,15% Hemiptera (percevejos, cigarras, afídeos, etc.), 5,35% Hymenoptera (vespas, abelhas, formigas, marimbondos) e 5,31 % outros.