AFTER MUCH FANFARE, A HEADLINING DINO Returns Home to Brazil

Although it died 110 million years ago, a chicken-sized dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period in Brazil has been traveling the world while headlining the scientic news the past couple years. Now, it’s heading home. e initial headline from the State Museum of Natural History Karlruhe in Germany back in 2020 described Ubirajara jubatus as the rst dinosaur from the Southern Hemisphere to show evidence of feathers. While that article in the journal Cretaceous Research generated a buzz within the paleontological community, it generated consternation within Brazil, along with new headlines.

It appears the fossil had been spirited out of Brazil under less than proper circumstances. is created a whirlwind debate about so-called “paleontological colonialism,” with wealthy nations removing fossil treasures from less wealthy nations, including Brazil, which has laws governing national heritage including rare fossils. is further prompted a Twitter campaign (#UbirajaraBelongstoBR), a headlining 2021 investigation by the journal Science, and a withdrawal of the initial paper describing the fossil. e science ministry in the German state of Baden-Württemberg has issued a decree to repatriate Ubirajara to Brazil.

is has now led to paleontology becoming “decolonized” as local scientists are allowed to study and publish ndings about critters discovered in their backyards. It also has lead to a movement to keep fossils in their countries of origin and to require authorship of scientic papers to include scientists from those countries.