Thread by @PaleoCisneros

The spicy 🔥🌶️🌶️🌶️🔥 paper is out of the oven! We put fossil discoveries from the last decades in Mexico and Brazil under the microscope and show how colonial science practices are still prevalent. [1/n]
Graphical abstract by @emmadnn

Mexico and Brazil have rich fossil sites with spectacular fossils. They attract the attention of researchers from around the world and general public alike. They should boost local science and benefit local communities through tourism. [2/n]

But too often they are studied by foreign teams without participation of local institutions. Too often they end hidden in private collections or leave the country. This happens in ways that are legally difficult to explain. [3/n]

This creates research dependency and transforms the source countries in mere suppliers of data and specimens to the Global North. At least 90 holotypes (fossils that represent new species) from Brazil were smuggled to Germany alone. [4/n]

Laws in Mexico and Brazil forbid selling their fossils. But some institutions do not hide they have purchased them. Some papers do not hide this too. The Karlsruhe Natural History Museum even sells Brazil’s fossils openly in souvenirs shops! [5/n]

We answer several arguments used in defence of colonial practices (this is the best part of the paper!). For example, they often say there are no local institutions to protect these fossils, nor researchers to study them... [6/n]

Finally, we make some recommendations to all parties to avoid these practices. The magic word is *cooperation*. Foreign scientists are very welcome but must offer ethical partnership and respect our laws. [7/n]

This work is the result of collaboration with wonderful people @mauritiantales @alinemghilardi @emmadnn @FeliPinheir @mathchaos @ad_miranda @PhylumBryozoa @RenanBantim @FlavianaJorge @incisorial
And of course #UbirajaraBelongstoBR #DecoloniseScience [8/n]
doi.org/10.1098/rsos.2…

"Colonial science" is still a taboo in palaeontology 🙈🙉🙊 But archaeologists have been discussing this issue for decades. This conversation needs to remain open.