The fossil of the dinosaur Ubirajara jubatus, discovered in the Araripe Basin, in southern Ceará, will be repatriated from Germany to Brazil, after a meeting held by officials from the German Ministry of Science, Research and Arts on Tuesday (19) .
The find, which lived between 110 and 115 million years ago, is in the Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The decision follows the publication of an article in the journal Cretaceous Research in 2020, with researchers claiming the fossil was not legally exported and requested repatriation to Brazil.
At the time, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office established a procedure to investigate the output of the fossil.
understand the case
In 2021, a movement called #UbirajaraBelongsToBR (Ubirajara belongs to Brazil, in free translation) flooded social media demanding the repatriation of the fossil. For the Brazilian Society of Paleontology (SBP), the material was illegally taken to Germany in the 1990s.
The SBP said at the time that the Natural History Museum was initially ready to speak on the matter, however, it backed off and stated that referring to the Culture Protection Act, there was no legal basis for the return.
In a publication, the museum stated that the fossil was owned by the German government and that it had acquired the dinosaur before the entry into force of the 1970 UNESCO Convention (2017), which regulates the transfer of ownership of cultural property.
The claim is that, according to a private fossil dealer, the rock slab with the fossil was introduced in 2006, and the museum acquired it from the fossil dealer in 2009.
The fossil trader is responsible for legal export and import. The museum relied on the dealer’s statements and did not carry out further verification.
Repatriation
Now, with the decision taken on Tuesday, German Science Minister Theresia Bauer said in a statement that “Ubirajara must therefore go back to where it belongs, given its great importance and the questionable circumstances of its acquisition. — to Brazil”.
“We have a clear stance, which is expressed in consistent actions: if there are objects in our museum collections that were acquired under legally or ethically unacceptable conditions, the return will be considered. In our opinion, the circumstances of the export and importation of this single fossil are unclear and there are doubts as to the legality of the acquisition and the exact circumstances of the importation.”
In the text, the German Ministry of Science said that the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro should be the intermediary to house the dinosaur fossil.
At first, the material could be sent to the Plácido Cidade Nuvens Museum of Paleontology, in Ceará.
Source: CNN Brasil
