New dinosaur remains from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil (Candelária Sequence,Hyperodapedon Assemblage Zone)

Pretto, F.A., Schultz, C.L., Langer, M.C. 4.02.2015. New dinosaur remains from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil (Candelária Sequence, Hyperodapedon Assemblage Zone). Alcheringa 39, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

The oldest unequivocal dinosaurian records come from Upper Triassic strata, mostly from Argentina and Brazil. Recent fieldwork in the Brazilian deposits of Ischigualastian age (late Carnian–earliest Norian) have resulted in the collection of a new specimen (UFRGS-PV-1240-T) identified as dinosaurian by the presence of a concave emargination on the ventral surface of the femoral head and a well-developed deltopectoral crest on the humerus, which extends for ca 40% of its estimated proximodistal length. Although fragmentary, the material increases the dinosaurian record from the Late Triassic of Brazil, which is still modest when compared with coeval Argentine strata. Additionally, UFRGS-PV-1240-T augments the dinosaurian diversity at the ‘Sítio Janner’ site, which was until now restricted to the sauropodomorph Pampadromaeus barberenai. The new specimen is larger than most early dinosaurians (except for herrerasaurids), implying that members of the group were already occupying niches otherwise explored by other larger-bodied taxa in the ‘Sítio Janner’ palaeofauna, and Late Triassic palaeoenvironments in general.

Flávio A. Pretto [flavio_pretto@yahoo.com.br] and Cesar L. Schultz [cesar.schultz@ufrgs.br] Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto de Geociências, Setor de Paleovertebrados, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500—Bloco J, Prédio 43127, Campus do Vale, Agronomia?Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, CEP 91540-000; Max C. Langer [mclanger@ffclrp.usp.br] Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Departamento de Biologia, Av. Bandeirantes, 3900, CEP 14040-901, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.     

A new species of Scirrotherium Edmund & Theodor, 1997 (Xenarthra,Cingulata, Pampatheriidae) from the late Miocene of South America

Góis, F., Scillato-Yané, G.J., Carlini, A.A. & Guilherme, E. 2013. A new species of Scirrotherium Edmund & Theodor, 1997 (Xenarthra, Cingulata, Pampatheriidae) from the late Miocene of South America. Alcheringa 37, 175–186. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new species of Scirrotherium Edmund & Theodor (Pampatheriidae) is described: S. carinatum. This genus was previously represented by a single species, S. hondaensis Edmund & Theodor, 1997, recorded from the middle Miocene (Laventan) of Colombia. Pampathere remains are common in the ‘Conglomerado osífero’ (late Miocene) of the Ituzaingó Formation in the Paraná River cliffs of Entre Ríos, Chubut (Argentina) and Acre (Brazil). All of them were referred to Kraglievichia paranense, and they are mostly osteoderms. However, only a few of these specimens are strictly consistent with that species. The new species described herein differs from S. hondaensis in having very thin osteoderms with more elaborate ornamentation. The movable band (or imbricate) osteoderms have a sculptured exposed surface and a single transverse row of anterior foramina; the lateral margins are wider and also bear foramina, and the longitudinal central elevation is long and proximally wide, and forms a posteriorly raised crest. This elevation is delimited by a fairly broad and shallow depression on each side, separating the marginal elevation from the longitudinal central one. The exposed surfaces of fixed (or fused) osteoderms bear large and deep anterior foramina, the longitudinal central elevation and delimiting depressions are very pronounced. This new species increases the known diversity of the pampatheres from the ‘Conglomerado osífero’. Additionally, a new nomenclatural scheme for Pampatheriidae osteoderms is proposed.

Flávio Góis [goisf@fcnym]unlp.edu.ar], Gustavo Juan Scillato-Yané [scillato@fcnym.unlp.edu.ar], Alfredo Armando Carlini [acarlini@fcnym.unlp.edu.ar], Departamento Científico Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque, s/n, 1900, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina and CONICET; Edson Guilherme [guilherme@ufac.br], Universidade Federal do Acre, Laboratório de Pesquisas Paleontológicas (LPP), BR 364, Km 04, 69.915-900. Rio Branco, AC, Brazil. Received 11.5.2012; revised 31.7.2012; accepted 4.9.2012 .     

How green is the valley? Foreign direct investment in two Norwegian industrial towns

Since the early 1900s, foreign direct investments (FDIs) have greatly affected Norwegian society, especially peripheral communities. This article analyses how transnational corporations (TNCs) use territory down to the local level, and how this complex relationship between firms and spaces is shaped by attributes related to the TNC and the characteristics of the local economy. An extensive literature discusses different types of effects and spillovers, such as vertical supply linkages and spin-offs, but theoretical explanations of outcomes are more difficult. The literature links positive as well as negative outcomes to local conditions and to the investment motives of the entity making the FDI, but says little about how these vary with types of business, communities and national economies, and how these interactions generate different outcomes. We conclude that FDIs have different abilities to transform an area. We argue that FDI can trigger path-dependent dependency when it is dominated by economic capital and path-dependent development when it consists of a balance of economic capital, social networks and knowledge. This variation in the effects of FDI is illustrated by an empirical analysis of two industrial towns in Western Norway, one with natural resources and the other with intangible technology resources.     

Labour mobility in the Euroregion Galicia–Norte de Portugal: constraints faced by cross-border commuters

ABSTRACT

Removing barriers to labour mobility is expected to contribute to processes of spatial integration in cross-border regions, by an efficient allocation of labour and consequently a convergence between territories separated by a common border. Nevertheless, despite the de-bordering process within the European Union, administrative, legal and language barriers still hamper cross-border labour mobility, preventing the process of labour market integration. The aim of this paper is to identify obstacles to the mobility of cross-border workers commuting within the Euroregion Galicia–Norte de Portugal. The methodology employed combines the analysis of official data on labour mobility with qualitative data gathered from interviews with cross-border commuters, aimed at finding explanations for the different attitudes towards cross-border mobility inside this Euroregion. While traditional push and pull factors remain relevant in explaining cross-border labour flows, the qualitative information offers new insights into different levels of indifference from cross-border workers. The result is a fragmented labour market where Norte de Portugal is providing low-qualified, low-wage labour, whereas Galicia is contributing with well-paid, qualified labour.     

The lower jaw and dentition of the traversodontid Exaeretodon riograndensis Abdala,Barberena & Dornelles,from the Brazilian Triassic (Santa Maria 2 Sequence,Hyperodapedon Assemblage Zone)

Exaeretodon riograndensis Abdala, Barberena, & Dornelles, 2002 Abdala, F., Barberena, M.C. and Dornelles, J.E.F. 2002. A new species of the traversodontid cynodont Exaeretodon from the Santa Maria Formation (Middle/Late Triassic) of Southern Brazil. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 22: 313–325. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] is the most abundant traversodontid preserved in the basal Santa Maria 2 Sequence (Hyperodapedon Assemblage Zone), southern Brazil and is closely related to Exaeretodon argentinus Cabrera, 1943 Cabrera, A. 1943. El primer hallazgo de terápsidos en la Argentina. Notas del Museo de La Plata, Paleontología, 8: 317–331.  [Google Scholar] from the Ischigualasto Formation, Argentina. Previous anatomical studies of E. riograndensis have focused mainly on cranial material and little is known about the morphology of its lower dentition or postdentary bones. We describe the first fairly complete postdentary series of the mandible of E. riograndensis and provide additional information on its lower dentition. The postdentary bones of E. riograndensis include a complex coronoid, an angular with a delicate reflected lamina and a stout retroarticular process of the articular, contrasting with the morphology reconstructed for Argentinean specimens, which possess a small retroarticular process. Apart from that, the postdentary bones do not differ significantly from those known for E. argentinus, a fact expected due to the great similarity between other skeletal features of these species. Furthermore, the lower postcanines of E. riograndensis have virtually the same structure as those of E. argentinus, with an approximate quadrangular shape in occlusal view. Moreover, the transverse cusp row is placed anteriorly and comprises a lingual and a buccal cusp, and the occlusal basin delimited by the four main cusps is relatively deep. The new material does not add any taxonomically diagnostic features to E. riograndensis. However, the fossils greatly improve our understanding of the anatomy of the Brazilian species.     

Foreign direct investment and renewal of industries: framing the reciprocity between materiality and discourse

ABSTRACT

Informed by the evolutionary literature on economic geography, this paper develops a conceptual framework for analysing the complexity between foreign direct investment (FDI) and renewal of industries. Present contributions tend to explain the impact of FDI on regional industry evolution as a static, output-oriented phenomenon, that is, informed by an instrumental rationale in which the dynamism of FDI and regional industry development is linked to polarization of stagnation/decline vs. growth/development. Opposing this, we argue for an epistemological shift in approach to the reciprocity between FDI and renewal of industries as dynamism between material outcomes and discursive processes. To accomplish this, we build on key concepts and understandings from evolutionary economic geography; review the regional effects of FDI literature and build a framework sensitive to contextual dimensions of FDI. We focus on multinational companies’ practices and material outcomes in terms of regional spillovers and the discursive processes in terms of FDI narratives. This framework is exemplified by data from the salmon farming industry and the subsea industry in Hordaland and the oil and gas industry and the mining industry in Finnmark.     

Labor agency and the importance of the national scale: Emergent aquaculture unionism in Chile

In this article we argue for the continuing relevance of the national scale in understanding the geographies that shape and constrain labor agency. Recent contributions to labor geography have held that some of the central concepts used to understand the transformative capacities of labor, such as agency and scale, are under-theorized. On the basis of our study of the emergent labor movement in the Chilean aquaculture industry, we suggest that this field suffers from what we term “glocalocentrism”, which overshadows the fundamental importance of structures and processes that are primarily scaled nationally. With the labor repression of the Pinochet regime imprinted in current national institutions and organizational traditions, the aquaculture sector was able to develop in southern Chile from the early 1980s onwards, without a significant union movement to press workers’ claims, and it benefited from exploitative practices and low wages. The first company level unions did not appear until the late 1980s, and a national confederation of aquaculture unions was formed as late as 2006. After the outbreak of the ISA virus in 2007, thousands of workers were left unemployed, and the young union movement struggled for state intervention and programs, with some success. International networks brought attention to the issue, but structures and processes at the national level conditioned the possibilities for the emergent labor movement to press its claims successfully.