After a long dispute, the state government of Baden-Württemberg decides that the remains of the dinosaur Ubirajara jubatus were probably not acquired legally. The fossil is now to be brought to the home country.
Baden-Württemberg and Brazil have been fighting for the fossils for a long time, now it is certain: The dinosaur “Ubirajara jubatus” from the Cretaceous period, which is still in the State Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe, is returning to where it was once excavated. The state government of Baden-Württemberg decided on Tuesday. Last year, the Ministry of Science in Stuttgart denied that the fossils had been illegally brought to Germany. But now it is said that the museum informed the ministry incorrectly and could not prove that the import was legal. “In our opinion, the circumstances of the export and import of this unique fossil are not clear and there are doubts as to the legality of the acquisition and import,” said Science Minister Theresia Bauer (Greens) on Tuesday. The dinosaur should go back “to where it belongs in view of its great importance and the questionable circumstances of its acquisition – to Brazil”. It may be kept there in the future in the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.
Ubirajara jubatus lived about 110 million years ago in what is now northeastern Brazil. Researchers from Karlsruhe, England and Mexico, among others, had it in the journal in 2020 Cretaceous Research described for the first time and amazed the experts. Not because of the size of the dinosaur: with a shoulder height of about a quarter meter, it was only as tall as a skinny chicken. But while dinosaurs were usually feathered, this one apparently had a kind of hairy mane. He also wore two keratin horns on each shoulder. Keratin is the stuff that hair and fingernails are made of. No previously known dinosaur had such a physiognomy. The name Ubirajara jubatus means “lord of the spear with a mane”.
The Natural History Museum must now check whether it owns any other objects that were acquired in an unclear manner.
However, the dinosaur also attracted attention for another reason: like the science magazine, among other things Science reported, Brazilian paleontologists accused the researchers that the fossil should not have been brought to Karlsruhe. Brazilian law prohibits the sale of fossils abroad. Cretaceous Research then withdrew the study. The argument also flared up because Ubirajara is far from the only dinosaur that has been discovered in an emerging or developing country, but taken out of the country and examined by European or American researchers. As an analysis showed last year, local scientists are often not even involved.
According to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, a private fossil dealer imported the petrified fossil in 2006 and sold it to the State Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe in 2009. According to the ministry, the museum then relied on the fossil being lawfully imported and did not verify the dealer’s information. A spokeswoman for the museum did not comment on request, but referred to the Ministry of Science.
The Natural History Museum must now check whether it has other objects in its collection that were acquired in a similarly unclear manner, said Minister Bauer. In the museum in Karlsruhe, this will be a task for a new director: the previous director of the Natural History Museum, Norbert Lenz, had already announced in May that he would be leaving the house at the end of September for personal reasons.