As coleções de vertebrados miocénicos do Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência estiveram presentes no XII Congresso Nacional de Geologia da Sociedade Geológica de Portugal, em Évora. O paleontólogo Pedro Mocho e colaboradores documentaram em comunicação oral os trabalhos que estão a ser desenvolvidos numa coleção com centenas de exemplares de vertebrados do Miocénico.
O Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência da Universidade de Lisboa conserva uma importante coleção de fósseis de vertebrados do Miocénico da Bacia do Baixo Tejo, reunidos desde o século XIX. Esta coleção que sobreviveu ao incêndio de 1978 que deflagrou no edifício da Escola Politécnica, e está atualmente a ser alvo de trabalhos de inventariação, caracterização e digitalização para garantir a sua preservação e facilitar futura investigação. Entre os exemplares destacam-se fósseis dos antepassados dos elefantes, baleias, crocodilos, tubarões, raias, peixes e tartarugas, revelando a diversidade da fauna que habitava a região de Lisboa há cerca de 20 a 7 milhões de anos.
Estes trabalhos estão a ser realizados pelo Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência em colaboração com o Instituto Dom Luiz e o Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C) da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal), bem como com o Grupo de Biología Evolutiva da UNED e com a Universidad Complutense de Madrid e a UNED (Espanha). O resumo desta apresentação encontra-se abaixo:
The Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência of the Universidade de Lisboa (MNHNC-ULisboa) holds an important paleontological collection of fossil vertebrates collected from marine to terrestrial Miocene deposits of the Lower Tagus Basin in Portugal. The specimens come from stratigraphic levels ranging from the Burdigalian to the upper Tortonian. This collection incorporates objects collected since the 19th century, including the first Portuguese fossil vertebrates to be mentioned in the literature. A substantial part of the collection consists of specimens collected in the 1960s from numerous Miocene locations, mainly from the northern and eastern areas of Lisbon, and from the Peninsula of Setúbal. Most of these specimens were collected in the context of civil construction associated with the suburban expansion of Lisbon and were often extracted by the construction workers under uncontrolled excavations, resulting in limited information about their taphonomic context. In 1978, the facilities of the MNHNC were hit by a fire that significantly affected the museum's geological collections. Fortunately, part of the paleontological collections had been temporarily relocated to a separate wing of the museum, which, although partially damaged, did not result in the destruction of most of the Miocene vertebrate collection. Since then, additional specimens have been collected and incorporated into the collection. Recently, the MNHNC has undertaken a comprehensive effort to inventory, catalogue, and characterize this collection, as well as to establish priorities according to its conservation needs, the first results of which are presented here. This work has enabled the identification of the main conservation and restoration requirements, as well as the development of both preventive and curative conservation protocols. All specimens and associated historical data are being catalogued and documented through detailed photographic records, including the generation of 3D models. This process improved understanding of the collection, and a topographic record is being developed to enhance identification, accessibility, and research use. Preliminary anatomical and systematic assessments have allowed us to identify the main faunistic groups represented in the collection, which are dominated by proboscideans (e.g. Gomphotherium), cetaceans, crocodiles and chondrichthyan fishes, and less abundantly by actinopterygian fishes and turtles.
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