Guimarota A Jurassic Ecosystem

The Guimarota coal mine in central Portugal is the most important fossil locality in the world for Late Jurassic mammals and other small vertebrates. From 1973 to 1982 the mine was worked exclusively for paleontological purposes all year round, which represents one of the most ambitious enterprises in the history of paleontology. Tens of thousands of skulls, jaws, bones, and teeth of terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates and countless invertebrate and plant remains were collected. A great international sensation was created by the discovery of the first complete skeleton of an ancestor of modern mammals. Twenty specialists from geo- and biosciences summarize in 21 chapters the latest findings of more than 30 years of interdisciplinary research on the Guimarota locality. The book deals with the history of discovery, excavations, geology, stratigraphy, paleobiology, and paleoecology of the fossil locality. It is illustrated with many large size colour prints and provides an exciting insight into a Late Jurassic ecosystem at the eastern shore of the Proto-North Atlantic, at a time when giant dinosaurs ruled the world and tiny mammals had just begun their careers. The book will be of interest not only to paleontologists and geologists, but also to students and scholars of the bio- and geosciences. It should also be welcomed by a more general public interested in palaeontology, geology, and evolution.