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Prized dinosaur fossil returned to Brazil after controversy

The one-of-a-kind specimen will be housed at a museum in Santana do Cariri, near where it was found.
  1. Meghie Rodrigues
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Repatriation ceremony of the fossil Ubirajara jubatus in Brasilia.

From left: Leonardo Troiano, an archaeologist at the Institute of National Historic and Artistic Heritage in Brasilia; Hermínio de Araújo Júnior, president of the Brazilian Society of Palaeontology, who is based in Rio de Janeiro; Luciana Santos, minister of science, technology and innovation; Juan Carlos Cisneros, a palaeontologist at the Federal University of Piauí in Teresina; and Aline Ghilardi, a palaeontologist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Natal. Credit: Luara Baggi (ASCOM/MCTI)

This celebratory image shows Brazilian researchers and government officials gathered around a prized fossil of the dinosaur Ubirajara jubatus. The fossil, newly returned to Brazil from Germany, sparked an outcry in late 2020 after palaeontologists published a now-retracted paper1 about it. The 110-million-year-old specimen represents the first non-avian dinosaur to be found in South America with structures that seem to be precursors to feathers. None of the authors on the paper was from Brazil, and it was suggested that the removal of the fossil from the country was illegal. A campaign ensued to return the fossil from Germany, where it was being stored in a museum, as part of a movement denouncing colonialism in palaeontology. “I hope that this recognition by Germany will be an inspiration for other countries that hold, in unclear circumstances, other specimens of Brazilian palaeontological biodiversity,” said Luciana Santos, Brazil’s minister of science, technology and innovation, during a 12 June event in Brasilia at which the fossil was returned, following a long negotiation between countries. It will now be housed at the Plácido Cidade Nuvens Palaeontological Museum in Santana do Cariri, near where the fossil had been found.

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Nature 618, 655 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01969-z

References

  1. Smyth, R. S. H., Martill, D. M., Frey, E., Rivera-Sylva, H. E. & Lenz, N. Cretac. Res. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104686 (2020).

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