Germany returns to Brazil dinosaur fossil smuggled in the 90s
After years of negotiations in almost three decades since it was smuggled from Brazil to Germany, the fossil of the Ubirajara jubatus was returned to Brazil.
The specimen of a dinosaur ancestor of birds, which lived some 110 million years ago, is the first of its kind found in Latin America and the oldest in the Araripe basin, on the border between the states of Ceará, Piauí, and Pernambuco, in the Northeast.
Irregularly removed from Brazil in the 1990s, the fossil was housed in the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe, Germany, and returned to its origin on June 4.
The chicken-sized, feather-covered fossil lies on two plates, positive and negative, one plate measuring 47 cm by 46 cm x 4 cm, weighing about 11.5 kg. The second plate measures 47 cm x 46 cm x 3 cm and weighs approximately 8 kg.
To celebrate the repatriation of the fossil, Brazil’s Ministry of Science and Technology, the government of Ceará, the Regional University of Cariri and representatives from the German government held a ceremony on Monday (Jun. 12).
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Luciana Santos, celebrated the return of the fossil to the country. While highlighting the importance of the scientific cooperation maintained with Germany for over 50 years, the minister pointed out she hopes for other similar events of repatriation of assets.
“I hope Germany’s recognition serves as an inspiration for other countries that hold, in unexplained circumstances, other specimens of the Brazilian paleontological biodiversity,” she declared.
The National Museum of Rio de Janeiro was considered as a possible place to shelter the fossil. However, the Ubirajara jubatus will be part of the collection of the Plácido Cidade Nuvens Paleontology Museum, which belongs to the Regional University of Cariri, in the city of Santana do Cariri, Ceará. The place welcomes an average of 2 thousand visitors every month.
