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Forensic Paleontology: A Tool for "Intelligence" and Investigation
No full textPaleontology and facies analysis proved to be useful tools in activities of intelligence and investigation on some criminal cases, as well as in in-court activities, thus defining the "forensic paleontology" area of study. The definition was given by analyzing its possible specific applications and excluding some marginal activities. The reliability of forensic paleontology was then assessed in light of the results achieved in some actual cases and in an ad hoc simulation. The investigated cases concerned intelligence and ordinary law enforcement activities. Special attention was paid to crimes against the cultural heritage. Ex post re-examination of the cases substantiated the value of this scientific branch in investigations, while stressing the possible difficulties in explaining its results to lay persons. Therefore, careful preparation of technical and linguistic preliminary notes for judges, prosecutors, and lawyers as well as a special training for consultants are recommended before presenting results as exhibits in in-court cross-examinations. © 2013 American Academy of Forensic Sciences
Insect pupation chambers from the Pleistocene paleosoils of Santo Stefano Island (Pontine Archipelago, Central Italy)
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Sometimes They Come Back: Recovery and Reinterpretation of a Trackway Slab from the Permian Coconino Sandstone of the Southwestern United States
No full textWhen a fossil vanishes to a private collection, it must be considered lost to science because, frequently, it is no longer available for study. Fortunately some fossils occasionally are regained. We had the opportunity to recoup an interesting footprint-bearing slab that was part of a private collection in Italy. The specimen, found in 1992 near Seligman, Arizona (USA) was described, before disappearing, as one of the best fossil examples of vertebrate (Chelichnus [Laoporus])-on-invertebrate (Octopodichnus) predation. After a careful re-examination of the slab, the primary conclusions of the former describers are demonstrably groundless. The reanalysis of the tracks, as well as peculiar sedimentary structures associated with the tracks, allowed obtaining new information about the depositional environment and the complex interactions between the type of substrate and trackmaker behavior. The re-examination of the specimen also revealed interesting aspects about trackmaker biomechanics
Geo-Lehrpfad. Bletterbach. Geologischer Wanderführer durch den Bletterbach Aldein/Radein.
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Updating and reinterpreting the dinosaur track record of Italy
No full textThe recently discovered, and unexpectedly rich, dinosaurian ichnological record of Italy, has proven to be integral
to the paleogeographic understanding of the peri-Mediterranean area, and is updated and refined herein.
Through analysis of the stratigraphic, spatial, and geodynamic contexts of the entirety of the current ichnological
dataset, three distinct associations are recognized (Late Triassic–Early Jurassic, Late Tithonian–Late Cenomanian
and Coniacian–Maastrichtian). While the first and last associations can be largely encompassed by pre-existing
models, the Late Tithonian–Late Cenomanian assemblage requires further investigation. To account for the
spatio-temporal distribution of the ichnological evidence a model that invokes repeated dinosaur migrations
from Africa to the Southern Italian Carbonate Platforms up to the Late Cenomanian is needed. At the end of
this time interval a still-poorly-known, extensional tectonic phase broke up Adria causing the last dinosaur occurrence
locally and requiring a re-evaluation of the geodynamic models for this region
How phylogeny can be a tool for ichnosystematics?
No full textThe need to improve dinosaur tracks zoological attribution has led to experiment phylogenetic analysis as a tool in order to more closely parallelize ichnosystematics and bone based systematics. According to Carrano & Wilson (2001) a ...“trackmakers should be identified primarily by skeletal structures that are both preserved in the ichnofossils and synapomorphies of some body-fossil clade.”. Indeed this attempt to parallelize the ichnosystematics with the phylogeny of dinosauromorphs has been done based on the rationale that many characters of dinosaur locomotion derive from biomechanical constraints. The latter depend on osteological features related among them by ancestor/descendant relationships. These characters could, at least partially, have been recorded in well preserved footprints and trackways, allowing to attribute the ichnofossils to bone based groups on the basis of the analysis of phylogenetic characters.
In this paper we support the proposal that well preserved and correctly described ichnotaxa might have a real phylogenetic value. Investigate to what extent a footprint can be considered as a delegated of an organism, is a key step to demonstrate the potential of dinosauromorphs Ichnology. The current and the future results open new perspectives to the Ichnology and could be very important in paleogeography studies.
Reference
Carrano M.T. & Wilson J.A. (2001). Taxon distributions and the tetrapod track record. Paleobiology, 27 (3): 564-582
FORENSIC GEOSCIENCE
No full textForensic Geoscience are the set of all sciences that focuses on Earth system and can be applied in law enforcement and in intelligence activities. The word “Forensic Geoscience” replaces the obsolete “Forensic Geology” because this last gave a limited and misleading image of possible and potential applications of the Earth Science in Criminalistic and Criminology. Geosciences more often used in Forensics are Geology “sensu stricto”, Paleontology, Mineralogy, Petrography, Geological engineering, Geophysics and Geochemistry. The leading countries in Forensics, such as United States, Canada, Germany and many others, have a long tradition of use of Forensic Geoscience as a tool in investigations and in court, while they are scarcely applied in Italy.
A new section of the Italian Geological Society dedicated to this topic was, only recently, opened due to in Italy Forensic Geoscience are still scarcely known. The section aims to be a tool for communication between geologists, working in di
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