Palaeontologists Hugo Campos and Octávio Mateus, from Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da NOVA (NOVA School of Sciences and Technology), found the first fossils of placodonts know in Portugal, a species of aquatic reptiles that lived and got extinct over 220 million years ago.
The discovery of ribs and shell of this species dates back to 2016, but only now the researchers announced it in a study integrated in the catalog of the exhibition “Loulé: Territórios. Memórias. Identidades”, taking place at the National Archaeology Museum.
Octávio Mateus, who advised Hugo Campos on his master thesis in paleontology, explained that “placodonts are a group of reptiles that had not been identified in Portugal yet, but that are known in other parts of the world”.
Know more about this discovery at the website of FCT NOVA.