Traços fósseis de insetos em ossos de vertebrados do triássico médio e tardio do Brasil

Abstract

This master degree dissertation reports the earliest known evidence of osteophagy by invertebrates in a continental setting from the Middle and Late Triassic Santa Maria Supersequence, Paraná Basin, Brazil. Bone samples from the Dinodontosaurus Assemblage Zone (Pinheiros-Chiniquá Sequence – Middle Triassic) and the Hyperodapedon Assemblage Zone (Candelária Sequence – Late Triassic) were analyzed and a number of trace morphologies were identified and described, including tubes, holes and channels. This dissertation presents an overview of the present knowledge about bone bioerosion, and at the end the manuscript entitled “Oldest evidences of osteophagic behavior of insects from the Triassic of Brazil”, submitted to Paleoecology, Paleoclimatology and Paleogeography journal. We report on that manuscript the occurrence of Cubiculum inornatus to the Middle Triassic, and Osteocallis mandibulus to the Late Triassic, including a new ichnospecies for this ichnogenus. The occurrence of these trace morphologies suggests that the insects with bone-modification behavior arose in Triassic gondwanic environments, dispersing through the Mesozoic, and achieving a more cosmopolitan distribution during the Cretaceous.