Pesquisa bibliométrica sobre Paleontologia e Arqueologia em Unidades Espeleológicas Brasileiras

Abstract

The caves are known for preserving cave paintings, lithic artifacts, ceramics and even remains of prehistoric man, as well as fossil material that is carried into its interior by groundwater and floods over thousands of years, protecting them from the weathering and leading to fossilization. Due to the lack of mapping of archaeo-speleo-paleontological sites in the country, the present study was proposed to examine karst units with archaeo-paleontological records, map their locations and generate data on paleo-archaeological discoveries found in natural cavities nationwide. Initially, relevant literature was searched defining certain keywords. The keywords were "Caverna", "Cavidade Natural", "Paleontologia", "Fóssil" and "Arqueologia". In the subsequent phase, targeted research platforms, sources and repositories were used to collect geospatial data and metadata. Subsequently, the bibliographic results were filtered and selected for the database, considering the timeframe from 2010 to 2023. Afterwards, the intellectual structure was aggregated and the state of the art was tabulated. In the final step, the data were processed to create maps and graphs for interpretation. The results demonstrate that the words “Caverna; Paleontologia” had the highest result with almost 50% of the cases. More than half of Brazilian natural cavities with fossil and/or archaeological findings are found in carbonate lithology, mainly limestone (53.2%). Sandstone rocks (11.3%), BIFs (3.2%) and granites (3.2%) also exhibit natural cavities with relevant records. The caves of the Bambuí Group presented the greatest cases of archaeo-paleontological records, followed by the Corumbá Group, Salitre Formation and Furnas Formation. Most fossils discovered from 2010 to 2023 indicate Quaternary ages. Much of the research in the last decade is concentrated in the Annals of the Brazilian Congress of Speleology and 2017 proved to be the year with the most publications. Bahia gave prominence to paleontological research in caves, resulting in the publication of 19 works in 21 cities, on the other hand, Pará was more productive for archaeological studies in caves. Campo Formoso (BA), Lagoa Santa (MG) and Rurópolis (PA) stand out for having the highest number of works published among Brazilian municipalities. Regarding taxonomy, most fossils discovered are of mammals, followed by hominids and their achievements. The Midwest and North regions lacked studies on archaeopaleontology in natural cavities in recent years, as shown by the mapped points. Finally, it was concluded that significant amounts of excavated publications lacked crucial geological data from the field, it is suggested that this information be observed in future work. Furthermore, the probability of occurrence of caves in granitic lithology seems to be greater than those currently proposed, more studies are needed for this hypothesis. In addition, the results point to possible new caves and suggest updating existing geospatial databases, including more indexing data sources for broader results and building a unified online environment for public access for archiving and sharing data of scientific research.