Professor in the Department of Biology at the Federal University of Espírito Santo, Alegre Campus. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Fluminense Federal University (2007), a Master’s degree (2010), and a Ph.D. (2015) in Biological Sciences (Zoology) from the National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His academic background includes expertise in vertebrate zoology, comparative anatomy, systematics, and evolution, with research primarily focused on paleontology and herpetology. He currently serves as Curator of the Paleontology Collection at the Natural History Museum of Southern Espírito Santo (MUSES/UFES), Coordinator of the Jacarés Rurais Project, and member of the PALEOANTAR Project.
The Antarctic’s Gondwanan cousin: a new Dynomenidae (Crustacea, Dromioidea) from the Santa Marta Formation, James Ross Basin, Antarctica Daniel Lima, Mateus Bocate Franco, Marcos Tavares, Rodrigo Giesta Figueiredo, Juliana Manso Sayão, et al. Journal of Paleontology, 2025 The James Ross Basin, situated in the northwestern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula, holds one of the most complete sedimentary records of the Cretaceous, and hosts exceptionally well-preserved and diverse fossil assemblages, particularly notable for high southern latitudes. The Santa Marta Formation (Santonian–Campanian) harbors a rich decapod crustacean fauna, including Anomura, Astacidea, Achelata, Brachyura, and Glypheidea. Among brachyuran crabs, only four families have been described on James Ross Island: Homolodromiidae, Necrocarcinidae, Prosopidae, and Raninidae. This work focuses on a brachyuran from the Marambio Group, a part of the Santa Marta Formation. The material presented here was collected during the 41st Brazilian Antarctic Operation by researchers of the PALEOANTAR project. The site consists of a sequence of intercalated volcanic sandstones, siltstones, and tuffs, interpreted as a set of volcanoclastic deposits formed in a deltaic environment. The specimen described here with a well-preserved ventral surface, Sabellidromites santamarta new species, is assigned to the Dynomenidae based on uropods as calcified dorsal plates, a reduced, obliquely subdorsal fifth pereopod (fourth pereopod not reduced), and characteristics of the dorsal carapace. The occurrence of Sabellidromites santamarta n. sp. in the Santonian–Campanian of Antarctica suggests biogeographic exchanges of the dynomenid fauna between the Northern and Southern hemispheres during the Late Cretaceous. UUID: http://zoobank.org/5c53c84a-af78-432f-ba1a-795008a3db70
Kidneys and adrenal glands of Caiman yacare (Daudin, 1802) (Crocodylia: Alligatoridae): morphology and morphometry MARIANA O. LIMA, LEONARDO L. GORZA, EDUARDO JOSÉ S. BORGES, YHURI C. NÓBREGA, LEONARDO O. TRIVILIN, et al. Anais Da Academia Brasileira De Ciencias, 2025 Crocodilians are semi-aquatic reptiles with highly sophisticated anatomy and physiology that are well adapted to dwell in freshwater environments or be exposed to brackish and saltwater, indicating the complex nature of the organization and function of the urinary system in these animals. The objective of this work is to describe the morphology of the kidneys and adrenal glands of <italic>Caiman yacare</italic>, providing morphometric comparisons between male and female animals. It is concluded that macroscopically, the kidneys had an elongated oval shape, reddish-brown color, and greater width in the middle region. The kidneys are associated with the wall of the coelomic cavity, together with the adrenal glands and gonads. Histologically, the renal structure consisted, from the outer periphery to the inner core, of the collecting tubules, the cortical region, the proximal and distal convoluted tubules, the renal corpuscles and the medullary region. The adrenal glands are composed of two types of tissue: adrenocortical tissue and chromaffin tissue. Morphometric analyzes revealed that male kidneys exceeds female kidneys in most macroscopic biometric dimensions. The diameter of the renal corpuscles for both sexes was greater in the caudal portion of the right kidney, and in the middle portion of the left kidney, for males.
Ontogeny and evolution of the elasmosaurid neck highlight greater diversity of Antarctic plesiosaurians Arthur S. Brum, Tiago R. Simões, Geovane A. Souza, André E. P. Pinheiro, Rodrigo G. Figueiredo, et al. Palaeontology, 2022 The Antarctic plesiosaurian record is critical for understanding the evolution of elasmosaurids in the southern hemisphere. Elasmosaurids exhibit some of the most remarkable modifications of the vertebrate axial skeleton given their extreme elongation of the cervical region. Despite a considerable amount of information available on vertebral counts within Plesiosauria throughout the decades, we have a considerably more limited understanding of the diversity of cervical vertebral shapes in elasmosaurids and how these have changed throughout ontogeny and phylogeny. Here, we compile the largest known morphometric dataset on elasmosaurid cervical vertebrae, including data on juveniles and adults, to answer some of those long‐standing questions. This dataset also includes newly recovered materials from Antarctica, which we describe herein. Using multivariate statistical approaches, we find that the two major elasmosaurid cervical morphotypes, the elasmosaurine anteroposteriorly elongate (can‐shaped) and the aristonectine anteroposteriorly short and dorsoventrally tall (disc‐like), evolved towards opposite regions of the morphospace from the plesiomorphic ‘Cimoliasaurus’‐grade condition. We also find a marked ontogenetic shift from the disc‐like to can‐shaped morphology, which is especially pronounced in elasmosaurines but more limited in aristonectines. Furthermore, we find that juvenile aristonectines occupy a specific region of the vertebral morphospace, distinct from any other group or ontogenetic stage, thus suggesting that reversal to the ‘short‐necked’ condition in elasmosaurids is mostly characterized by ontogenetic predisplacement in aristonectines. Finally, we find that it is possible to discriminate between vertebral shapes of distinct taxonomic groups regardless of ontogenetic stage, and that the diversity of Antarctic elasmosaurids was greater than previously recognized.
Notes on the gross anatomy of the heart of the broad-snouted caiman, Caiman latirostris (Daudin, 1802) Mariana de Oliveira Lima, Yhuri Cardoso Nóbrega, Marcelo Renan de Deus Santos, Louisiane de Carvalho Nunes, Rodrigo Giesta Figueiredo, et al. Journal of Veterinary Medicine Series C Anatomia Histologia Embryologia, 2021 The broad‐snouted caiman, Caiman latirostris (Daudin, 1802), is one of the six crocodilian species from Brazil. The topography, morphology and morphometry of the broad‐snouted caiman heart were studied. Data were obtained from the necropsy of four adult animals, three females and one male. The hearts were removed from the coelomic cavity and fixed in 10% formalin for 48 hr for morphological and morphometric description. The heart is in the cranial mediastinum. It is caudally involved by the liver cranial margins, and ventrally by the ribs, intercostal muscles, and sternum and dorsally by the lungs. The four‐chambered morphology is typical with two (right and left) atria and ventricles. Right and left aortic, pulmonary and subclavian arteries branch from the truncus arteriosus. Gubernaculum cordis is present as ligamentous folds uniting the heart apex to the pericardium. Main morphometric means are the apex‐to‐base length (49.86 mm), circumference (105.25 mm) and heart weight (45.03 g). The right atrium is craniocaudally longer with thicker walls, whereas the left ventricle is narrower. The topography, morphology and morphometry of the heart of C. latirostris are consistent with the anatomy of other crocodilian species.
