11-03-2022
Lepidochitona Rochae was the name given to a new species of fossil mollusk, in honor of Rogério Bordalo da Rocha (1941-2018), paleontologist and professor at the Department of Earth Sciences at NOVA School of Science and Technology and former President of the Geological Society of Portugal.
The revelation was made in the Journal of Paleontology, a recognized peer-reviewed scientific publication published by the Paleontological Society, an American organization for the promotion of paleontology. The paper “Biogeography of northeastern Atlantic Neogene chitons (Mollusca, Polyplacophora): New data from the Pliocene of Portugal”, signed by Bruno Dell'Angelo, Bernard M. Landau, Carlos Marques da Silva and Maurizio Sosso, describes the findings made in the analysis from a 500 kg sample of sediment. It is in this work that the academics share the discovery of two new species of fossil molluscs from the Pliocene of Portugal.
“In this work two new species (of molluscs) are formalized and one of them was named in honor of Prof. Rogério Bordalo da Rocha”, explains Portuguese paleontologist Carlos Marques da Silva, professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. "It is my sincere tribute to Prof. Rogério, of whom I have very good memories and to whom I will always be grateful for his sympathy, for his sincere and uncomplicated treatment and for the scientific and logistical support he offered me when I was still at the Faculty of Geology of the State University of Moscow", he adds.
Rogério Eduardo Bordalo da Rocha (1941-2018) was a recognized paleontologist and specialist in Triassic and Jurassic stratigraphy and paleontology. He was the first doctorate at the NOVA School of Science and Technology and his doctoral thesis "Stratigraphic and paleontological study of the Jurassic of the Western Algarve" proved to be essential for the understanding of the Algarve's Jurassic. He signed and co-signed more than 225 scientific articles, published in national and international journals and was also one of the leading promoters (and even president) of the Geological Society of Portugal.
