Brazil: How a Dinosaur Started a Postcolonial Movement


In the past, when issues of scholarly colonialism were brought up with colleagues in wealthy countries, the incidents were dismissed as anecdotal events, he says. “Now that this is published in a scientific journal, it’s impossible to ignore.”

Jeff Liston, president of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists, based in Edinburgh, UK, who has studied the illegal fossil trade in China, says the scientific community is already aware of the issues surrounding colonial paleontology aware for some time, but the debate over the last few years has brought the discussion to a wider audience.

More publications on this topic are planned in Latin America, including papers discussing how journals can help solve the problem. The paleontological associations of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico plan to send a letter to a scholarly journal describing how colonial practices are affecting paleontology in the region. “One of our goals is to raise global awareness of the responsibility of journals in combating colonial practices,” says Hermínio de Araújo Júnior, President of the Brazilian Paleontological Society based in Rio de Janeiro.

For example, in the March 2022 publication, the researchers noted that none of the studies they reviewed reported approval for taking the fossils abroad. “A big step would be to ask for the proper permissions to study the material they bring to the journal,” says Karen Moreno Fuentealba, president of the Chilean Society of Paleontology in Santiago. “That would certainly be a way of enforcing correct scientific conduct.”

Some journals, such as Palaeontology, have already adopted guidelines requiring authors to comply with local laws when collecting and exporting specimens. “‘PLOS ONE’ was one of the first magazines to establish very strict ethical guidelines regarding the submission of collection and export permits,” says Liston. “Nature” has these kinds of guidelines as well.

A Latin American Alliance

Latin American researchers have also raised awareness of colonial paleontology at international conferences. In December 2021, at the third annual Palaeontological Virtual Congress, Cisneros presented research in which he and his team analyzed the impact of the #UbirajaraBelongstoBR campaign. The hashtag became a trending topic on Twitter in Brazil between December 2020 and January 2021, following the release of the Cretaceous research paper.



Source link -69