Produção Nacional
History of Research in the Lagoa Santa Karst
2020; Springer International Publishing; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1007/978-3-030-35940-9_1
ISSN2364-4591
Autores Tópico(s)Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
ResumoThe Lagoa Santa Karst is the most researched and best-known karst area in Brazil; it is an emblematic karst area within the context of Brazilian karst. Its modern history spans over 200 years, since the arrival of the first European settlers, although prehistoric cultures had occupied the area since at least the early Holocene. The arrival of Danish naturalist Peter Wilhelm Lund in Lagoa Santa in 1835 started a period of intense research that continues to this day. Lund was responsible for bringing international recognition to the area through outstanding paleontological work that has formed, up to this day, the basis of Brazilian palaeontology. Numerous other European scientists, notably Johannes Reinhardt, Hermann Burmeister, Eugen Warming and Herluf Winge, took advantage of Lund's residence in Lagoa Santa (and later, of Lund's collection in Copenhagen) to perform additional research and publish original data in several disciplines. In the early twentieth century, members of the Academy of Sciences of Minas Gerais (mainly Aníbal Mattos and Harold Walter) and the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro resumed Lund's work in the caves and revived old controversies related to the antiquity of human remains and their contemporaneity with the extinct megafauna. In the second half of the twentieth century, major research continued to be performed by foreign scientists, including archaeologists and geomorphologists (respectively, led by Annette Laming-Emperaire and Heinz Charles Kohler), which helped create local research groups based in the Minas Gerais's state capital, Belo Horizonte. The area is still a hot spot of scientific research in various fields, mostly led by Brazilian groups, and continues to enjoy international scientific relevance.
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