Paleontologists from a small number of countries control much of the world’s fossil data
Credit: Youyou ZhouAdvertisement
Rich countries overwhelmingly dominate paleontology research, even when the fossils do not originate there, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed 26,409 paleobiology papers from 1990 to 2020 and found that scientists in high- or upper-middle-income countries contributed to 97 percent of fossil research. And those from former colonial powers disproportionately controlled fossils from their former colonies. For example, French researchers conducted a quarter of all paleontology studies in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria; German scientists carried out 17 percent of research on fossils from Tanzania; and 10 percent of studies on South African and Egyptian fossils were conducted by British investigators.
“This was very eye-opening,” says Nussaïbah B. Raja-Schoob, a paleontologist at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in Germany, who co-led the study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. “With colonialism, certain countries already had an advantage. After independence, the knowledge wasn’t transferred back, so a lot of countries had to start from scratch and with less money.”
Credit: Youyou Zhou; Source: “Colonial History and Global Economics Distort Our Understanding of Deep-Time Biodiversity,” by Nussaïbah B. Raja et al., in Nature Ecology & Evolution; February 2022
This article was originally published with the title “Colonialism Shadows Fossil Science” in Scientific American 326, 4, 84 (April 2022)
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0422-84
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Clara Moskowitzis Scientific American‘s senior editor covering space and physics. She has a bachelor’s degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University and a graduate degree in science journalism from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Follow Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz Credit: Nick Higgins
Recent Articles by Clara Moskowitz
Youyou Zhou is a New York-based data journalist working with graphics and code. She produces data-driven, visual, interactive and experimental journalism that breaks free of word-based formats. Follow her on Twitter @zhoyoyo
Recent Articles by Youyou Zhou
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