Digging deeper into colonial palaeontological practices in modern day Mexico and Brazil

Abstract

Scientific practices stemming from colonialism, whereby middle- and low-income countries supply data for high-income countries and the contributions of local expertise are devalued, are still prevalent today in the field of palaeontology. In response to these unjust practices, countries such as Mexico and Brazil adopted protective laws and regulations during the twentieth century to preserve their palaeontological heritage. However, scientific colonialism is still reflected in many publications describing fossil specimens recovered from these countries. Here, we present examples of 'palaeontological colonialism' from publications on Jurassic-Cretaceous fossils from NE Mexico and NE Brazil spanning the last three decades. Common issues that we identified in these publications are the absence of both fieldwork and export permit declarations and the lack of local experts among authorships. In Mexico, access to many fossil specimens is restricted on account of these specimens being housed in private collections, whereas a high number of studies on Brazilian fossils are based on specimens illegally reposited in foreign collections, particularly in Germany and Japan. Finally, we outline and discuss the wider academic and social impacts of these research practices, and propose exhaustive recommendations to scientists, journals, museums, research institutions and government and funding agencies in order to overcome these practices.

Keywords: Latin America; illegal fossil trade; palaeontological heritage; parachute science; research ethics; scientific colonialism.

Figure 1.

Fossils from the Sabinas Basin, Mexico, stored in a private collection. (a) Cf. Tselfatia formosa, approximately 750 mm body length. (b) Cf. Belenostomus longirostris, approximately 700 mm body length. (c) Pachyrhizodontid fish approximately 750 mm body length. (d) Chelonia cf. Terlinguachelys sp., approximately 300 mm body length. (e) Holotype of plesiosaur Mauriciosaurus fernandezi [25]. (f) Holotype of Aquilolamna milarcae [32]. All fossils are deposited in the collection registered by INAH as REG2544PF, which is housed by Mauricio Fernández (seen in the photograph) in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. (e,f) Image captures from video by Grupo Reforma Youtube Channel [31].

Figure 2.

Holotype vertebrate fossils from Araripe Basin, Brazil, stored in foreign collections. (a) SMNK PAL 29241, proposed holotype skeleton of the feathered dinosaur ‘Ubirajara jubatus’ [26], (publication retracted by publisher), (b) SMNK PAL 3828, holotype of the pterosaur Ludodactylus sibbicki [28], (c) SMNK 2344 PAL holotype of the pterosaur Tupandactylus navigans [95], (d) SMNS 58022 holotype of the dinosaur Irritator challengeri [30] (e) SMNK PAL 3804, holotype of the crocodyliform Susisuchus anatoceps [96], (f) private collection BMMS BK 2-2, holotype of the putative legged-snake Tetrapodophis amplectus [27], currently interpreted as an aquatic lizard [33], photograph by Michael Caldwell. Abbreviations: SMNK, State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe, Germany; SMNS, State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart.

Figure 3.

Fossil sites at the Sabinas, La Popa and Parras basins (NE Mexico) and Araripe Basin (NE Brazil). (a) La Mula Quarry, North of Múzquiz, Coahuila. (b) Vallecillo Quarry in Nuevo León State, with quarry worker Ramón Ramírez. (c) Nova Olinda Quarry in Ceará State. Photographs (a) courtesy of Alberto Blanco-Piñón, and (b) by Selene Velázquez.

Figure 4.

Publications on Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils from Sabinas, La Popa and Parras basins, and other sites in Coahuila and Nuevo León states between 1990–2021 (plants and microfossils excluded). (a) Issues detected in the publications. (b) Current location of the fossils. See electronic supplementary material, table S1, for list of publications.

Figure 5.

Publications on Cretaceous fossils from Araripe Basin, Brazil, between 1990 and 2020 (only holotypes, invertebrates excluded). See electronic supplementary material, table S2, for list of publications and description of methods used. (a,c) Current location of the fossils. (b) Issues detected in the publications.

Figure 6.

Museums, natural monuments and institutions providing postgraduate courses related to palaeontology in Mexico (left) and Brazil (right). See detailed list in electronic supplementary material, tables S4 and S5.

Figure 7.

Comparison of publications published by country during 2000–2018. Data from National Science Foundation from USA available through The World Bank at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IP.JRN.ARTC.SC.

Figure 8.

Outreach activities and public interest in palaeontology in Brazil and Mexico. (a) The cross of Picos de Pato (duck-bill dinosaurs) and Tiranosaurios streets at Rincón Colorado, Coahuila, México (with palaeontologist Giuseppe Leonardi). (b) School students learn how to find fossils in the Jovens Paleontólogos (Young Palaeontologists) Project in Nova Olinda, Ceará, Brazil, by Universidade Regional do Cariri (URCA). (c) Meeting of Paleontólogos Aficionados de Sabinas A.C. (Civil Association of Amateur Palaeontologists of Sabinas) in Coahuila (René Hernández Rivera and Jim Kirkland seen in the photograph). This association created the Museo Paleontológico de Múzquiz in 2005 [62]. (d) Fan art with #UbirajaraBelongstoBR hashtag posted on Twitter in December 2020 (credit: Saulo Daniel Ferreira Pontes, @saulodfp).

Figure 9.

Posts on Twitter.com using the hashtag #UbirajaraBelongstoBR between 13 December 2020 and 31 March 2021.

Figure 10.

Representative specimens of 36 recently repatriated spiders from Araripe Basin, Brazil. (a) holotype of Cretapalpus vittari. (b, c) unidentified spiders, temporarily uncatalogued. Previously stored at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, they are now reposited at Museu de Paleontologia Plácido Cidade Núvens at Universidade Regional do Cariri (URCA), Santana do Cariri, Ceará. Scale bar represents 5 mm.

Figure 11.

(a) acquisition of Araripe fossils by Staatliche Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart. SMNS 58022 holotype of the dinosaur Irritator challengeri, (label says ‘purchased from M. Kandler 1991’); SMNS 55 414 pterosaur (indeterminate genus), (label says ‘purchased from K. H. Frickhinger, Planegg in Munich, 5.6.187’ [sic]); 82 001 pterosaur (indeterminate genus), (label says ‘purchased from K. H. Frickhinger Planegg in Munich, 5.6.1987, together with 55 404–55 415 for the price’); 56 994 pterosaur Tropeognathus robustus, (label reads ‘acquired from C. Novaes Ferreira, São Paulo, Brazil (7.11.1990)’. (b) Araripe fishes (Dastilbe sp.) being sold at a souvenir shop in Staatliche Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe in 2011. Commerce and exportation of fossils has been forbidden in Brazil since 1942 (see §2 and box 3).