Octávio Mateus (born 1975) is a Portuguese dinosaur

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

and

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

Professor of Paleontology at the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da

Universidade Nova de Lisboa NOVA University Lisbon (, ), or just NOVA, is a Portuguese public university whose rectorate is located in Campolide, Lisbon. Founded in 1973, it is the newest of the public universities in the Portuguese capital city, earning its name as the " ...

. He graduated in

Universidade de Évora The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

and received his PhD at Universidade Nova de Lisboa in 2005. He collaborates with

Museu da Lourinhã Museu da Lourinhã, also known as the Lourinhã Museum, is a museum in the town of Lourinhã, west Portugal. It was founded in 1984 by GEAL - Grupo de Etnologia e Arqueologia da Lourinhã (Lourinhã's Group of Ethnology and Archeology). The current ...

, known for their dinosaur collection. His PhD advisor was

Miguel Telles Antunes Dr. Miguel Telles Antunes (born 11 January 1937) is a Portuguese academic, specializing in paleontology, zooarchaeology, and geology. Antunes is a ranking member of various institutions, including the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, Nova Universi ...

. He is an expert on dinosaurs, particularly

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

dinosaurs of Portugal, but he has also worked with specimens from

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, the

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

New dinosaur taxa he has helped name include '' Lourinhanosaurus antunesi'' (1998), '' Dinheirosaurus lourinhanensis'' (1999), '' Tangvayosaurus hoffeti'' (1999), '' Draconyx loureiroi'' (2001), '' Lusotitan atalaiensis'' (2003), '' Europasaurus holgeri'' (2006), '' Allosaurus europaeus'' (2006), '' Angolatitan adamastor'' (2011)'','' ''

Torvosaurus gurneyi ''Torvosaurus'' () is a genus of large Megalosaurinae, megalosaurine Theropoda, theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 165 to 148 million years ago during the Callovian to Tithonian ages of the late Middle Jurassic, Middle and Late Jurassi ...

'' (2014), '' Zby atlanticus'' (2014), ''

Galeamopus ''Galeamopus'' is a genus of herbivorous diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs. It contains two known species: ''Galeamopus hayi'', known from the Late Jurassic lower Morrison Formation (Kimmeridgian age, about 155 million years ago) of Wyoming, United S ...

'' (2015), ''Issi saaneq'' (2021), and '' Iberospinus natarioi'' (2022). Since 1991, Octávio Mateus has organized dinosaur excavations in Portugal, as well as Laos with the French team of the

Paris Museum of Natural History The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

, led by Prof.

Philippe Taquet Philippe Taquet (born 25 April 1940 Saint-Quentin, Aisne) is a French paleontologist who specializes in dinosaur systematics of finds primarily in northern Africa. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences since 30 November 2004, president ...

. He has worked in Angola, where he discovered ''

Angolatitan ''Angolatitan'' (meaning "Angolan giant") is a genus of titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous. It is also the first non-avian dinosaur discovered in Angola. The genus contains a single species, ''Angolatitan adamastor'', kn ...

'', the first Angolan dinosaur in the scope of a project in the area of vertebrate paleontology of Angola. He collaborates with diverse international scientific institutions as the scientific council member of the German foundation Verein zur Förderung der niedersächsischen Paläontologie. He also studied dinosaur tracks and eggs, phytosaurs, chelonians, and whales. In 2012, he integrated an expedition to the Triassic of Greenland in Jameson Land.

Controversies

In 2023, Mateus was accused of sexual harassment spanning back to 2010.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mateus, Octavio Portuguese paleontologists 1975 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese biologists University of Évora alumni