Thiago da Silva Marinho

Titanosaur (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) Osteoderms from the Maastrichtian of Uberaba, Minas Gerais State, Brazil

Abstract Titanosaur remains are common findings at the paleontological site of Peiropolis in Uberaba. Among those remains, two osteoderms referred to titanosaur sauropods were reported. Both dermal bones share many features, such as the coarse texture, parallel ventral grooves, lack of the cingulum and presence of a ventral ridge (crest). Armored titanosaurs had wide distribution in the Upper Cretaceous, and have been reported from Argentina, Brazil, France, Madagascar, Malawi, Romania and Spain. In the present work we describe and compare the Brazilian titanosaur osteoderms found thus far.

Current Developments in the Validation of Numerical Methods for Predicting the Responses of an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) System Cold Water Pipe

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) was a subject of intense research in the late 1970s and early 1980s in response to a historical jump in oil prices from the 1973 oil embargo. The principal author for this paper first met Prof. Paulling as a participant in a National Research Council (NRC) Panel to review OTEC Technology around 1982. Prof. Pauling had authored a frequency domain program to analyze the coupled response of a platform and OTEC pipe. The author was involved in model tests to validate the program. The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DoE) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had sponsored this work, along with the development of other numerical methods. Shortly after the NRC completed its review, oil prices fell and interest in renewable energy, including OTEC, evaporated. Fast forward to the 2000s, the price of oil skyrocketed again, and OTEC research saw a rebirth. Lockheed Martin and others have been working on new OTEC designs over the course of the last several years. As was the case thirty-five years ago, the cold water pipe remains a key technical challenge.A commercial scale OTEC plant requires a pipe diameter of about 10-meter (m) and a length of 1,000m to pump about half the average discharge of the Colorado River from the deep ocean to the surface and through heat exchangers. Because of the large effective mass of the CWP and entrained water, the dynamic response of the OTEC CWP and the platform can only be considered as a coupled system. This conclusion is not new, but is worth repeating and doubly important to consider when the supporting platform is a semi-submersible as opposed to a large water plane ship shaped vessel.A new generation of software is available to analyze the cold water pipe-platform responses, including the important effect of the fluid flow inside the pipe and the local effects at the connection of the pipe to the platform. The DoE and Lockheed Martin recently sponsored a 1:50 scale wave basin model test of a commercial OTEC platform with an elastically scaled model of a 10m pipe. The purpose of the test was to validate the use of current software for the large CWP diameters in the designs of a pilot or commercial systems in the near future. This paper will briefly review past work on the OTEC cold-water pipe and present the current state of the art in numerical modeling and the results of the model tests recently completed. It will include recommendations for further experimental and numerical work to be prepared for the future design of OTEC systems.© 2014 ASME

Tooth Marks of Mammalian Incisors on Rocky Substrate in Brazil: Evidence of Geophagy in the Cerrado Biome

Tooth marks on sandstone in an area of the Cerrado Biome are reported, indicating geophagy. The tooth marks were found on reddish sandstones cropping out in a pasture environment with typical components of the Cerrado Biome, in the Municipality of Campina Verde, Triângulo Mineiro region (west Minas Gerais State, Brazil). Studies have shown that the soil of the Cerrado is acid, with a low concentration of nutrients and minerals (also present in the plants living on this environment), which usually produce an alimentary deficiency in herbivorous animals. Therefore, these tooth marks indicate geophagy, in order to extract extra minerals from these sandstone levels, which have a high concentration of calcium carbonate and iron. The tooth marks consist of two parallel concave grooves and a medial prominent crest which results from the action of the incisors of mammals. Although the identification of the gnawing species for these sets of tooth marks are estimates at best, after wide comparisons we tentatively suggest that the tooth marks are most likely the result of the action of the incisors of rodents, such as Dasyprocta or Coendou.

The first Caipirasuchus (Mesoeucrocodylia, Notosuchia) from the Late Cretaceous of Minas Gerais, Brazil: new insights on sphagesaurid anatomy and taxonomy

Field work conducted by the staff of the Centro de Pesquisas Paleontológicas Llewellyn Ivor Price of the Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro since 2009 at Campina Verde municipality (MG) have resulted in the discovery of a diverse vertebrate fauna from the Adamantina Formation (Bauru Basin). The baurusuchid Campinasuchus dinizi was described in 2011 from Fazenda Três Antas site and after that, preliminary descriptions of a partial crocodyliform egg, abelisaurid teeth, and fish remains have been done. Recently, the fossil sample has been considerably increased including the discovery of several, partially articulated fish remains referred to Lepisosteiformes and an almost complete and articulated skeleton referred to a new species of Caipirasuchus (Notosuchia, Sphagesauridae), which is the main subject of this contribution. At present, this genus was restricted to the Adamantina Formation cropping out in São Paulo state, with the species Caipirasuchus montealtensis, Caipirasuchus paulistanus, and Caipirasuchus stenognathus. The new material represents the holotype of a new species, Caipirasuchus mineirus n. sp., diferenciated from the previously ones due to the following traits: last two maxillary teeth located posterior to anterior edge of infraorbital fenestra, elongated lateroventral maxillo-jugal suture-about ½ the anteroposterior maxillar length-and contact between posterior crest of quadrate and posterior end of squamosal forming an almost 90° flaring roof of the squamosal, among others. C. mineirus was found in the same outcrop than Campinasuchus but stratigraphically the former occurs in the lower portion of the section with no unambiguous data supporting the coexistance of both taxa.

Bioerosion traces on titanosaurian sauropod bones from the Upper Cretaceous Marília Formation of Brazil

Paes Neto, V.D., Francischini, H., Martinelli, A.G., Marinho, T.S., Ribeiro, L.C.B., Soares, M.B. & Schultz, C.L. May.2018. Bioerosion traces on titanosaurian sauropod bones from the Upper Cretaceous Marília Formation of Brazil. Alcheringa XXX, X–X. ISSN 0311-5518. Bone bioerosions provide an important taphonomic record on fossils from continental deposits dating back to the late Paleozoic. The morphological diversity of bone bioerosions is especially high in vertebrate remains from the Late Cretaceous. Here we describe four morphotypes of bioeroson preserved on titanosaur dinosaur bones collected from the Maastrichtian Marília Formation of Brazil. These traces differ from previously described ichnotaxa, and include branching furrows and surface removal resembling insect bioerosions, channels with semicircular cross-sections consistent with either root etchings or insects, and bite traces left by vertebrates. Taphonomic sequencing shows that time-averaging was an important aspect in the genesis of the Marília Formation taphocoenosis and demonstrates that traces left on bones are significant tools for reconstructing Late Cretaceous ecosystems. Voltaire Dutra Paes Neto [voltairearts@gmail.com] and Heitor Francischini [heitorfrancischini@hotmail.com] Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências (PPGGEO), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Agronomia, 91540-000, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; Agustín Guillermo Martinelli* [agustin_martinelli@yahoo.com.ar], Marina Bento Soares [marina-soares@ufrgs.br] and Cesar Leandro Schultz [cesar.schultz@ufrgs.br] Instituto de Geociências (IGeo), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Agronomia, 91540-000, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; Thiago da Silva Marinho† [thiago.marinho@uftm.edu.br] Centro de Pesquisas Paleontológicas ‘Llewelyn Ivor Price’ (CPPLIP), Complexo Cultural e Científico Peirópolis (CCCP), Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), R. Estanislau Collenghi 194, 38039-755, Peirópolis, Uberaba, MG, Brazil; Luiz Carlos Borges Ribeiro [lcbrmg@gmail.com] Centro de Pesquisas Paleontológicas ‘Llewelyn Ivor Price’ (CPPLIP), Complexo Cultural e Científico Peirópolis (CCCP), Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), R. Estanislau Collenghi 194, 38039-755, Peirópolis, Uberaba, MG, Brazil. *Also affiliated with: Centro de Pesquisas Paleontológicas ‘Llewelyn Ivor Price’ (CPPLIP), Complexo Cultural e Científico Peirópolis (CCCP), Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), R. Estanislau Collenghi 194, 38039-755, Peirópolis, Uberaba, MG, Brazil. †Also affiliated with: Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Naturais e Educação (ICENE), Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), Av. Randolfo Borges Jr. 1400, Univerdecidade, 38064-200, Uberaba, MG, Brazil.