Inventory and Assessment of Palaeontological Sites in the Sousa Basin (Paraíba, Brazil): Preliminary Study to Evaluate the Potential of the Area to Become a Geopark

Abstract

The Rio do Peixe rift basin developed during the Lower Cretaceous (Neocomian) and comprises the Sousa, Uiraúna-Brejo das Freiras, Pombal and Vertentes basins. In these basins, there is an abundant ichnofauna mainly composed of theropod, sauropod and ornithopod dinosaur trackways that represent the palaeontological heritage of the region. As the majority of the fossiliferous areas are located in the Sousa basin, an inventory and assessment of the scientific, educational and touristic values, together with the vulnerability of 25 palaeontological sites, is here presented and discussed. The aims of the study are to guide the strategies of geoheritage protection in the Sousa basin and to evaluate the scientific potential of the area as a geopark. In general, the geosites of the Sousa basin have low scientific and touristic values, moderate educational value and high vulnerability. The fossiliferous areas are suffering from strong natural and anthropic threats and are at high risk of degradation. For these reasons, based on the quality of the palaeontological sites, the region currently has little potential to become a geopark.

Tangible Heritage of the Historical Stonework Centre in Brusno Stare in the Roztocze Area (SE Poland) as an Opportunity for the Development of Geotourism

“…The evaluation of the cultural geosites revealed their low geological and tourist attractiveness as well as scientific value, in contrast to data presented by Sá dos Santos et al (2016) or Mero et al (2018). This may result from the relatively poor knowledge of Eastern Roztocze and its tourist resources.…”

Geoconservation of the paleontological heritage of the geosite of dinosaur footprints (sauropods) in the locality of São Domingos, municipality of Itaguatins, state of Tocantins, Brazil

“…The sedimentary process of the Corda Formation is appointed as a desertic environment of dry and hot weather conditions with fluvial systems of high energy in its interior. Given this context, the preservation of the previously mentioned fossils was an unusual event (Aguiar 1971;Silva et al 2003;Santos and Carvalho 2009). The main sedimentary structures in the Corda Formation are large-size packages with trough cross stratification and grain flow that are intercalated with layers of planeparallel laminations (Aguiar 1971).…”

“…The importance of the ichnofossiliferous outcrop of São Domingos becomes evident when compared to the quantitative evaluation of other geosites with superlative value and their importance for already recognized geoconservation (e.g., the ichnofossil geosites from Sousa municipality, Paraíba state, Brazil). As the geosite of São Domingos, the geosite of Sousa municipality also contains dinosaur footprints, and it is characterized by having average low scientific and tourist values, moderate educational value, and high vulnerability (Santos et al 2016).…”

Unearthing the geotourism experience: Geotourist perspectives at Mount Pinatubo, Philippines

“…With the above theoretical foundations, it can be implied that geotourism is about the construction of tourism spaces through the commodification of landscapes, geosites and geoheritage, for tourist appreciation and learning. Various researchers have highly focused their attention on this aspect of geotourism, as evident in the multitude of studies on the identification, quantification and scientific valuation of geosites (Brilha, 2016; Reynard et al, 2016); assessment of landscapes for geotourism development (Dos Santos et al, 2016; Višnić et al, 2016); and the creation of products (e.g. geotours) for geotourist enjoyment (Norrish et al, 2014; Santangelo et al, 2015).…”