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

Royal Society Open Science

Adriana Y. Miranda-Martínez¹  Aline M. Ghilardi²  Nussaïbah B. Raja³  Marcos A. F. Sales⁴  Flaviana J. de Lima⁵  Felipe L. Pinheiro⁶  Renan A. M. Bantim⁷  Omar Rafael Regalado Fernández⁸  Sergio González-Mora⁹  Juan Carlos Cisneros^1,10  Emma M. Dunne^1,11  Rubén A. Rodríguez-de la Rosa^1,12  Jason D. Pardo^1,13 

[1] Departamento de Biología Evolutiva, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Ciudad de México, México;Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, Brazil;GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Department of Geography and Geosciences, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Loewenichstr. 28, 91054 Erlangen, Germany;Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Ceará (IFCE) – Campus Acopiara, Acopiara, Ceará, Brazil;Laboratório de Paleobiologia e Microestruturas, Centro Acadêmico de Vitória – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (CAV/UFPE), R. Alto do Reservatório – Alto José Leal, Vitória de Santo Antão, Pernambuco, Brazil;Laboratório de Paleobiologia, Universidade Federal do Pampa, São Gabriel, Brazil;Laboratório de Paleontologia, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Regional do Cariri, Rua Coronel Antônio Luís, 1161, Pimenta, Crato, Ceará, Brazil;Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät der Universität Tübingen Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Tübingen, Germany;Museo de Paleontología, Departamento de Biología Evolutiva, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Ciudad de México, México;Museu de Arqueologia e Paleontologia, Universidade Federal do Piauí (UFPI), Teresina, PI 64049-550, Brazil;School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK;Unidad Académica de Ciencias Biológicas-Unidad Académica de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Calzada Solidaridad, S/N, Campus II, C.P. 98060, Zacatecas, Mexico;University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4N1;

关键词: scientific colonialism;    parachute science;    research ethics;    palaeontological heritage;    illegal fossil trade;    Latin America;   

DOI  :  10.1098/rsos.210898

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

Unknown