The bones of an ancient animal were found by researchers in the Brazilian state of Ceara, which is extremely rich in such finds. The remains fell into the hands of a private dealer and were later purchased by the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History in 1991. The perfectly preserved fossil even became the subject of a scientific paper by German and French scientists published in May of this year. .
According to the Brazilian law of 1942, all fossils found in the country’s territory are property of the state and therefore cannot be sold. Export for scientific purposes is possible, but depends on the government’s decision and generally requires the participation of Brazilian scientists in the preparation of an expert opinion.
In the letter, the scientists consider it necessary for the German government to consider “the ethical implications of German public collections containing a significant number of fossils from Brazil, which actively seeks to protect its paleontological heritage at the legislative level.”
“Therefore, we consider it essential that the Federal Republic of Germany carry out a systematic analysis of the provenance and legal acquisition of Brazilian fossils in existing museum collections,” the letter emphasizes.
One of the signatories, paleontologist Aline Gilardi from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, launched an online social media campaign for the “decolonization of science.”
It was previously learned that after several years of pressure from the scientific community, Germany returned to Brazil another dinosaur fossil of the ubirajara jubatus species, which was also smuggled into Germany.
