Search

Actuopaleontology is an essential discipline to understand the fossil record. It uses the present as a key to understand the past. Actualistic paleontology has been largely used in a vast array of paleontological fields such as ichnology, paleoart or functional morphology. Given its relevance in current and past paleontological studies, here we examine the advantages of this discipline, focusing in four recent works. In them, the study of contemporary groups allows us to know better if it is possible: to know how reliable is amber when studying extinct arthropods communities; to make trophic inferences about extinct elasmobranchs by dental microwear analysis; to reconstruct the morphology of certain fishes depending on its ecological niche or to find the type of flight in extinct birds considering their humerus morphology.

Les fluctuacions pleistocèniques del nivell de la mar han estat el primer determinant de la deposició geològica i l'evolució biòtica a Bermuda. Lilla està composta d'arenes carbonatades dipositades sobre el cim erosionat d'un volcà submarí durant el decurs de nivells de la mar elevats dels períodes interglacials. A partir de les arenisques interglaciars s'han obtingut unes poques restes de vertebrats, principalment d'edat pleístocènica mitja. Els intervals glacials estan marcats per sols vermells, derivats principalment de la pols atmosfèrica. Els vertebrats fòssils d'edat glacial no es troben preservats a la superfície i només es coneixen de coves i rebliments de fissures. A Bermuda es coneixen faunes fòssils dels darrers dos episodis glacials, però no dels anteriors. Es coneixen extincions certes o probables de vertebrats correlacionades amb, com a minim, quatre pujades interglacials del nivell de la mar (estadis isotòpics marins, MIS, 11,9,5 i 1). Es revisa la història de la paleontologia de vertebrats a Bermuda i s'allisten i es descriuen breument les localitats de vertebrats fòssils., Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations were the primary determinant of geological deposition and biotic evolution on Bermuda. The island is composed of carbonate sand deposited on the eroded summit of a submarine volcano during elevated sea-levels of interglacial periods. A few vertebrate remains have been recovered directly from interglacial sandstones, mainly of mid-Pleistocene age. Glacial intervals are marked by red soils derived mainly from atmospheric dust. Vertebrate fossils of glacial age are not preserved at the surface and are known only from caves and fissure fills. Fossil faunas are known on Bermuda from the last two glacial episodes but none of the earlier ones. Certain or probable extinctions of vertebrates are correlated with at least four interglacial rises in sea-level--Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 11,9,5, and 1. The history ofvertebrate paleontology on Bermuda is reviewed and fossil vertebrate localities are listed and briefly described.