The Heritage Interest of the Cretaceous Amber Outcrops in the Iberian Peninsula, and Their Management and Protection

The Heritage Interest of the Cretaceous Amber Outcrops in the Iberian Peninsula, and Their Management and Protection

All the amber outcrops of the Iberian Peninsula are Lower Cretaceous in age and, in the case of Spain, some of them have provided important arthropod specimens preserved as bioinclusions. These Spanish localities are rich in fossil taxa of phylogenetic relevance and evidence of both paleoecological...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geoheritage Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 511 - 523
Main Authors: Rodrigo, A., Peñalver, E., López del Valle, R., Barrón, E., Delclòs, X.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-09-2018
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Biogeosciences
Cretaceous
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Historical Geology
Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning
Mineralogy
Original Article
Paleontology
Physical Geography
Iberian Peninsula
Portugal
Spain
Konservat-Lagerstätten
Type localities
Paleontological heritage
Cretaceous amber
Legal protection
Portugal
Spain
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Summary:All the amber outcrops of the Iberian Peninsula are Lower Cretaceous in age and, in the case of Spain, some of them have provided important arthropod specimens preserved as bioinclusions. These Spanish localities are rich in fossil taxa of phylogenetic relevance and evidence of both paleoecological interactions and paleobehaviors are also abundant. Despite their high heritage interest, the actions conducted to their protection and management have been very unequal. In some cases, only the generic laws of national or autonomous scopes protect this heritage. In this paper, the state of the art of the Iberian Peninsula amber outcrops and a review of the major Cretaceous amber outcrops worldwide for comparison are presented. That comparison shows, in general, that the best protection, both legal and physical, occurs in Spain and that the case of Portugal is very different. In addition, some actions aimed at a more effective protection and management of the amber outcrops in Spain and Portugal are proposed, for example the proposal to consider the San Just outcrop, located in the Aragonese Community, under a protection designation as is the so called Bien de Interés Cultural .
ISSN:1867-2477
1867-2485
DOI:10.1007/s12371-018-0292-1