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Although rich in Cretaceous vertebrate fossils, prior to 2005 the amniote fossil record of Angola was poorly known. Two horizons and localities have yielded the majority of the vertebrate fossils collected thus far; the Turonian Itombe Formation of Iembe in Bengo Province and the Maastrichtian Mocuio Formation of Bentiaba in Namibe Province. Amniotes of the Mesozoic of Angola are currently restricted to the Cretaceous and include eucryptodire turtles, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs. Recent collecting efforts have greatly expanded our knowledge of the amniote fauna of Angola and most of the taxa reported here were unknown prior to 2005.

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Sauropods are often considered to have very limited mobility and reduced limb flexibility, mainly due to their giant size and consequent weight. In the Upper Jurassic Lourinhã Formation, central-west Portugal, deep vertical natural casts of sauropod manus tracks are often preserved as the infills of the original tracks. These manus tracks are vertical-walled, with marks of the striations of the skin scales, showing that the movement of the sauropod manus impacting and exiting the mud was totally vertical with no horizontal component of the stride. Some tracks are up to 66 cm deep, which is equivalent to the height of whole sauropod manus. This means that sauropods could lift their anterior feet in a complete vertical manner. Such movement is only possible if there is mobility at elbow and shoulder articulations in a higher degree than previously thought for sauropods. Our vision of sauropod limbs as inflexible columns has to be updated to a more dynamic model for limbs and body.

THE CRETACEOUS SKELETON COAST OF ANGOLA JACOBS, Louis, SMU, Dallas, TX, USA; POLCYN, Michael, SMU, Dallas, TX, USA; MATEUS, Octávio, Museu da Lourinhã, Lourinhã, Portugal; SCHULP, Anne, Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht, Maastricht, Netherlands; NETO, André , Universidade Agostinho Neto, Luanda, Angola Cretaceous coastal sediments of Angola present a rich and diverse fauna of marine amniotes, including turtles, mosasaurs, and plesiosaurs. The abundance of mosasaurs in particular suggests a highly productive coastal area. Angola today lies at the northern limit of the Namibian Desert, the so-called Skeleton Coast, which results from prevailing southeasterly winds of the descending limb of the southern Hadley Cell sweeping across the African coast. The Benguela upwelling and a highly productive sea are found today off the Namibian Desert coast. However, the Benguela upwelling system, based on results of DSDP studies, is said to have originated in the late Neogene and therefore cannot explain the productivity found along the length of the West African coast. The explanation is found in the northward drift of Africa through the arid climate zone, and is demonstrated by the tracing of the paleogeographic position of fossil localities through time.

The Upper Jurassic of Portugal has a rich vertebrate fauna well documented from both body and trace fossils. Although the occurrence of crocodyles and pterosaurs is well documented from body fossils, trace fossils from both groups were unknown until now. Here we describe an isolated crocodyle-like track from Praia da Peralta and pterosaur tracks from the Kimmeridgian of Pedreira do Avelino, Sesimbra (Azóia Fm.) and Porto das Barcas, Lourinhã (Lourinhã Fm.). An enigmatic track suggests the possible presence of a small, tail-dragging tetrapod.
Possible track-makers are suggested based on the known Late Jurassic vertebrate fauna of Portugal.

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NEW SPECIMENS OF ANGOLASAURUS BOCAGEI AND COMMENTS ON THE EARLY RADIATIONS OF PLIOPLATECARPINE MOSASAURS POLCYN, Michael, SMU, Dallas, TX, USA; JACOBS, Louis, SMU, Dallas, TX, USA; MATEUS, Octávio, Museu da Lourinhã, Lourinhã, Portugal; SCHULP, Anne, Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht, Maastricht, Netherlands New, well preserved material of the Turonian mosasaur Angolasaurus bocagei from the Tadi Beds of the Itombe Formation in northern Angola, allows detailed redescription of its morphology and reassessment of its phylogenetic relationships. Angolasaurus had been previously referred to the genus Platecarpus; however, phylogenetic analysis confirms the valid taxonomic status of A. bocagei, and reconstructs that taxon within a clade that also includes the genera Selmasaurus and Ectenosaurus. These forms are united by an elaborated infrastapedial process of the quadrate and a unique ridge-like descending process of the parietal forming the supraoccipital articulation, but also retain a relatively plesiomorphic configuration of the braincase. That clade is united with all other plioplatecarpines by a number of derived characters including the presence of a novel basicranial circulation pattern. In Africa, North and South America, early plioplatecarpines are known by the Middle Turonian and Angolasaurus and closely related forms appear by the Upper Turonian. Selmasaurus and Ectenosaurus are a rare faunal component of the Santonian and Campanian of North America. Platecarpus planifrons appears in the Coniacian of North America and represents the plesiomorphic condition of the clade containing the remaining species of Platecarpus and Plioplatecarpus, that appears in the Santonian and persist until the end of the Cretaceous, reaching global distribution. The temporal and geographic distribution of these radiations suggest influence of paleogeography and eustatic sea levels.

A partial sauropod was found in 1996 in Vale Pombas, north of Lourinhã, Central West of Portugal, in the Lourinhã Formation, top of Amoreira Porto Novo member dated as c. 150 M.a. (Early Tithonian, Late Jurassic) and is currently housed at Museum of Lourinhã, in Portugal. The specimen (ML368) comprises a complete tooth with root, anterior chevron and almost complete right forelimb including partial scapula, complete coracoid, humerus, ulna, radius, metacarpals I, III and V, phalanx, and ungual phalanx I. It can be ascribed to Turiasaurus riodevensis, which was previously described from the Villar del Arzobispo
Formation at Riodeva (Teruel, Spain). Characters shared with T. riodevensis holotype include: curvature and asymmetry of tooth crown, expansion of crown, outline of humerus, medial deflection of the proximal end of humerus, shape and prominence of deltopectoral crest, vertical ridge in the distal half of the ulna (considered as diagnostic of Turiasauria), configuration of metacarpals, and bone proportions. It differs from T. riodevensis holotype by the smaller size and the more rectangular ungual phalanx in lateral view. The sediments from which the Riodeva specimen was recovered were previsouly thought to be Tithonian to Berriasian in age. The presence of this species in Portugal, in beds confidently dated as Early
Tithonian, may allow a more precise date for the Riodeva type locality of early Tithonian in age. The humerus of the Portuguese T. riodevensis is 152 cm long. Although shorter than the Spanish specimen (790 mm), it represents a large individual. All adult sauropods recovered in Portugal thus far are very large individuals: Dinheirosaurus (estimated body length is 20-25 m), Lusotitan (humerus length estimated to be 205 cm), Lourinhasaurus (femur length: 174 cm), and Turiasaurus here reported. The lack of of small or medium adult body-size sauropods in the Late Jurassic of Portugal, suggests browsing niches thought to be occupied by smaller forms, could be have been available for other dinosaurs, like the long necked stegosaur Miragaia longicollum.

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The precursor of the North Atlantic existed between the North American and Iberian blocks from the earliest Jurassic Hettangian and has been ever expanding since. By the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian, when much of the Morrison Fm rocks were deposited, the proto-Atlantic was more than 300 km wide at 27° paleolatitude between North America and Iberia. Macrovertebrate paleontology reveals a unique story to the isolation of Iberia and instead suggest a paleogeographic land connection between North American and Iberia. Torvosaurus, Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Stegosaurus, Supersaurus and others have a distribution restricted to Morrison Formation in North America and Lourinhã Formation in Portugal. A novel paleogeographic model is here suggested: (1) around the Middle–Late Jurassic transition there is a major palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic reorganization, coincidental to a major eustatic sea-level drop and uplift associated with the Callovian– Oxfordian Atlantic Regressive Event; (2) creating an ephemeral land bridge presenting a temporary opportunity for terrestrial gateways likely across the Flemish Cap and Galician Bank land masses, allowing large dinosaurian taxa to cross the northern proto-Atlantic in both directions; (3) finally, a Callovian–Oxfordian faunal exchange around the 163 Ma, through latest Kimmeridgian at 152 Ma (the age of equivalent genera in both Morrison and Portugal), is was an interval that allowed speciation, but retaining generic similarity of vertebrates. This model is consistent with the chronology and taxonomy required for speciation of the Iberian and American forms, exemplified by the coeval sister-taxa pairs Torvosaurus tanneri and T. gurneyi, Allosaurus fragilis and A. europaeus, or Supersaurus vivianae and S. lourinhanensis. While some of the smaller animals in the fauna show Morrison/Portugal affinities, most from Iberia have European or even Asian affinities. The larger-bodied fauna are more closely related to Morrison than to mainland Europe (except for dacentrurine stegosaurs). The body size differences and affinities of taxa across paleogeography is comparable to what is observed today across the Wallace Line. Migration may have also occurred in both directions. The closest relative of Torvosaurus is likely the European Bathonian Megalosaurus, thus the presence of the genus in North America represents a European migration. On other hand, Allosaurus and Supersaurus origins are consistent with a North American origin, representing an westto-east migration.

A survey of Hemidactylus turcicus (Reptilia, Gekkonidae) was carried out every 3 weeks from March to November of 1997, in nocturnal transects in the city of Évora, Portugal. In this country this species is strictly nocturnal with a mean daily activity peak at 2hOO A.M (UTC).A model that correlates Activity and Temperature of the air is given. H. turcicus prefers, as microhabitat, walls (78%) and doors (16%) of low used houses. The average height in which they were found is about 3 meters.

Late Jurassic theropod dinosaurs have been known in Portugal since 1863 but only now are they being fully understood, with the recognition of genera such as Allosaurus, Aviatyrannis, Ceratosaurus, Lourinhanosaurus, and Torvosaurus from the Lourinhã and Alcobaça Formations (Kimmeridgian/Tithonian). Ceratosaurus dentisulcatus can now be reported from Portugal. It represents the only occurrence of this species outside the Morrison Formation.
New cranial elements confirm the presence of Torvosaurus tanneri, in Portugal. Torvosaurus was the largest Late Jurassic land carnivore. New postcranial and cranial elements allow the erection of a new species from Portugal, Allosaurus europaeus n.sp. The theropod assemblage of Portugal is similar to that of the Morrison Formation.

The diversity of fossil crocodylomorphs in Portugal is high, with occurrence as old as Mystriosaurus (=Steneosaurus) bollensis from the Lower Jurassic. The Late Jurassic forms are the better documented, and include the following taxa: Machimosaurus hugii, Lisboasaurus estesi Seiffert, 1973, Lusitanisuchus mitrocostatus Seiffert, 1975; Schwarz & Fechner 2004, Theriosuchus guimarotae Schwarz and Salisbury 2005, Cf. Alligatorium, Goniopholis baryglyphaeus, and a crocodylomorph-like eggs in dinosaur nests (Mateus et al., 1998; Ricqlès et al., 2001). From the Lower Cretaceous were reported a few dinosaurs but its record is strangely scarce in crocodylomorphs (Mateus et al., 2011). The Upper Cretaceous crocodiles show a large diversity, but it is mostly based in fragmentary material that require revision, such as “Crocodylus” blavieri? Grey from the Upper Campanian - Maastrichtian of Viso, near Aveiro (initially reported by Sauvage 1897-98), Goniopholis cf. crassidens Owen 1841 and Oweniasuchus pulchelus Jonet 1981. Moreover there is a fascinating, but poorly understood, crocodylomorph diversity in the Cenomanian of Portugal, documented by fragmentary specimens that have been doubtfully assigned to Thoracosaurus Leidy 1852 of the Middle Cenomanian of Cacém, to the nomen dubium Oweniasuchus lusitanicus Sauvage 1897-98 (interpreted as a mesosuchian goniopholid) based in a fragmentary mandible from the Campanian-Maastrichtian, and also from the Middle Cenomanian of Portugal, Buffetaut and Lauverjat (1978) report an fragmentary unidentified possible dyrosaurid from Nazaré. All this specimens are too incomplete to be compared with the specimen here described. In contrast, Cenozoic crocodiles of Portugal are often known after complete skulls and several individuals. The taxa list include Iberosuchus macrodon (Lower to Middle Eocene), Tomistoma calaritanus (Early Miocene) and T. lusitanica (Burdigalian-Helvetian), and Diplocynodon sp. (Antunes, 1961, 1987, 1994).
At least, two different morphotypes of crocodylomorph eggs from the Late Jurassic of Lourinhã Formation are also known.
A new specimen here reported of crocodile based in a partial skull and mandible (ML1818) from the Uppermost Middle Cenomanian platform carbonates of Baixo Mondego, west central Portugal (Tentúgal Fm., Callapez, 2004). The taxon is phylogenetically positioned as a basal Eusuchia, due to the choanae enclosed by the pterygoid, and closely related with stem Crocodylia and Borealosuchus. This specimen represents the only well documented and valid eusuchian species in the Cenomanian of Europe and is the oldest representative of an eusuchian crocodylomorph, with the exception for the Barremian Hylaeochampsa vectiana.