Cradle of Brazilian Paleontology
The Danish palaeontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund, known as the father of Brazilian paleontology, discovered a cave filled with human bones (15 skeletons) and megafauna (very large mammals) dating to the Pleistocene era. Eugen Warming assisted Lund 1863-1866, and described the flora of the area and the adaptations of the plants to the hazards of cerrado – drought and fire – in a work that still stands as a paradigm of ecological study ('Lagoa Santa').
A century later, in the 1970s, French archeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire carried out excavations in the area and discovered the oldest human fossil in Brazil, over 11 thousand years old, given the nickname Luzia.
Read more about this topic: Lagoa Santa
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Nor time prattled away, cradle of ignorance,
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—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
“Silent waters rocking on the morning of our birth,
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And from the heart of God the Spirit moved upon the earth,
like a mother breathing life into her child.”
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“If I were a Brazilian without land or money or the means to feed my children, I would be burning the rain forest too.”
—Sting [Gordon Matthew Sumner] (b. 1951)