Brazil’s most famous fossil is returning to Germany after almost three decades, to which it was brought irregularly. The long journey included diplomatic negotiations and short stops in Brasilia and Fortaleza. The Ubirajara (lord of spears in the Tupi language) jubatus (coat of arms in Latin) was officially returned to the Brazilian authorities this Monday by the Paleontology Curator of the Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe, led by Science Minister Luciana Santos. The ceremony was also attended by representatives of the German government and the state of Ceará, the country where this dinosaur lived 110 million years ago. The return is the successful culmination of a campaign by Brazilian paleontologists for the return of this specimen, whose discovery revealed how rich countries are exploiting fossils from the south, another legacy of colonialism.
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The fossil was in the possession of the Karlsruhe Museum for at least 17 years. The fossil of this two-legged animal with feathers and four pointed protuberances on the neck was brought to Germany under circumstances that have never been fully clarified but are irregular, since it was not legally allowed to leave Brazil.
The teacher Aline Ghilardi is one of the researchers who led the campaign which triumphed with the label on the networks #UbirajaraBelongsToBR. “It was a very tough fight, it means a lot to me to be here and see this little Brazilian up close. From now on, may many Brazilians be able to see and study it and may it be our flag in a greater struggle, the struggle for a more just and humane decolonized science,” Professor Ghilardi told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper during the ceremony organized by the Government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brasilia.
The return of the fossil required bilateral negotiations between Brazil and Germany and was only possible after authorities in the German state of Baden-Württemberg admitted, as Ceará authorities explained in a note, that the way the relic was obtained “scientific misconduct” is implicit.
The world of paleontology learned of the Ubirajara’s existence in 2020 when a study published in Cretaceus Research gave it a name and Brazilian researchers began to claim it as their own treasure. It was thanks to his panache that a scientific issue (beyond budget cuts and promising vaccines) made headlines in the local press and Uirajara became a matter of national pride. The return trip will make one more stop in Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará, where it will be unveiled on Wednesday.
He is later transferred to his final home, a university museum in his home country. Plácido Cidade Nuvens Museum of Paleontology is located in a small town called Santana de Cariri, where they are waiting for you like manna. “This fossil is a symbol that science has ethical boundaries that must be respected,” said museum director Professor Allyson Pinheiro in a note. He also pointed to a more prosaic issue than the importance of science and respect for ethics, namely tourism: “A dinosaur with this impact has the potential to attract differentiated tourism, influence development and set the wheel of the economy in motion set.”
With a population of 17,000 and 500 kilometers inland, Santana de Cariri hopes the return of the Ubrajara to its university museum will encourage the arrival of researchers and foreign visitors to the local paleontological site where the fossil was found.
The campaign for the return of the Ceará fossil began when Brazil had a far-right president and science denier in Jair Bolsonaro. The Lula government welcomed the cause, which boasts of defending science and winks at northeastern Brazil, a poor area far from the big capitals where most of the electorate is found.
The Natural History Museum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s oldest scientific facility housing 20 million objects, caught fire in 2018 and 85% of the pieces were destroyed. The reconstruction work is scheduled to end in 2027. Founded in 1818, many Brazilians learned of the existence of this national treasure the day it was cremated with its valuable collection, including the Luzia fossil, the oldest in Brazil and Latin America.
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