{"id":15116159,"date":"2026-05-22T11:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/germany-to-return-contested-dinosaur-fossil-to-brazil\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T12:01:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T16:01:02","slug":"germany-to-return-contested-dinosaur-fossil-to-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/germany-to-return-contested-dinosaur-fossil-to-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany to Return Contested Dinosaur Fossil to Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fossil<\/figure>\n

For many years a source of irritation<\/a>, a fossil of the Brazilian spinosaurid Irritator<\/em> challengeri<\/em> is now bringing some joy to paleontologists in its homeland.<\/p>\n

Following a successful public campaign for restitution, the piece is returning to Brazil from the collection of Germany\u2019s State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (SMNS), where it has been kept for the past 30 years\u2014a situation that Brazilian paleontologists and lawmakers deemed illegal.<\/p>\n

Representatives of both countries made the announcement last month during Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva\u2019s visit to Germany. In a joint statement,<\/a> they announced the German museum\u2019s \u201cwillingness\u201d to \u201chand over\u201d the fossil to Brazil and start a new, more transparent era of international collaboration.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is a very expected and cherished move because it represents a huge scientific and social victory for the Global South and for Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cFinally, the Irritator <\/em>will be back to its original place,\u201d said paleontologist Allysson Pontes Pinheiro<\/a>, director of the Pl\u00e1cido Cidade Nuvens Paleontology Museum.<\/p>\n

The museum, located in northeastern Brazil where the fossil was discovered in the 1990s, will host the Irritator<\/em> when it returns to Brazil. \u201cIt is a very expected and cherished move because it represents a huge scientific and social victory for the Global South and for Brazil,\u201d Pinheiro said, highlighting that the return will allow local scientists and the population to have access to a heritage that would be difficult and expensive to access abroad.<\/p>\n

The Irritator challengeri<\/em> fossil is one of thousands that have been illegally obtained from South America<\/a> by researchers from the Global North. Considered the most complete spinosaurid skull ever described, the 110-million-year-old specimen was taken from the Araripe Basin in northeastern Brazil and described in 1995 by British paleontologist David Martill and his German colleague Eberhard \u201cDino\u201d Frey<\/a>. Martill and Frey worked on at least one other fossil smuggled from Brazil<\/a> to Germany, an Ubirajara jubatus <\/em>specimen, which was repatriated in 2023<\/a> and is currently housed at Pl\u00e1cido Cidade Nuvens.<\/p>\n

Martill and Frey named the newly discovered species in reference to their irritation upon learning that the skull had been manipulated by fossil dealers to get a better price. Little did the researchers know that the fossil would irritate many other scientists, especially those from the animal\u2019s homeland.<\/p>\n

Revisiting a Fossil with \u201cProblematic Status\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 2023, triggered by the publication of a paper<\/a> that acknowledged the fossil\u2019s \u201cproblematic status,\u201d paleontologists in South America published an open letter to the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts of Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg State demanding its return<\/a>. The document received about 300 signatures from scientists and lawyers and was followed by a viral social media campaign involving influencers and a more recent public petition on Change.org that gathered more than 34,000 signatures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis campaign showed us that it is worth continuing to fight for our fossils.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

The restitution request is based on Brazilian legislation passed in 1942<\/a> that determined that fossils found in the country are the state\u2019s property and cannot be traded or exported without explicit authorization. In addition, a more recent Brazilian ordinance<\/a> (dating to 1990) mandates that any holotype (a fossil used to describe a new species, such as the contested Irritator<\/em> specimen) must remain in the country. Regardless, SMNS maintained the fossil had been legally purchased from a private dealer in Germany in 1991.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very happy the Brazilian law is now being respected,\u201d said Aline Ghilardi,<\/a> a paleontologist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte who was at the forefront of the repatriation campaign. \u201cThis campaign showed us that it is worth continuing to fight for our fossils.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of publication, SMNS had not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

A Long Process of Decolonization<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But Ghilardi is not entirely satisfied. She didn\u2019t like the wording of the announcement, which used the expression \u201chand over\u201d rather than return<\/em>, repatriate<\/em>, or restitute<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statement was a missed opportunity to demonstrate the German government\u2019s willingness to decide in favor of a restitution process,\u201d she explained. \u201cIt seems there is resistance to making these restitutions as actual restitutions. It appears as if it is theirs by right and that they will hand over the fossil to Brazil as part of scientific cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghilardi expressed that she will believe the repatriation will actually happen only when a specific return date is announced. (As of publication, it has not.) She also hopes that the Irritator<\/em> case is not an isolated incident, but part of an ongoing trend of restitutions intended to break the pattern of neocolonialism in science.<\/p>\n

A 2025 study published<\/a> by Ghilardi and colleagues in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica <\/em>showed that of nearly 500 invertebrate species described from fossils found in the Araripe Basin\u2014one of Brazil\u2019s richest and most threatened regions of geodiversity\u2014about half have holotypes stored in institutions across Europe, Asia, and North America, violating Brazilian law.<\/p>\n

Most of these smuggled fossils are hosted in Germany. \u201cSome foreign colleagues complained about our campaign, saying that it looked like we were persecuting Germany,\u201d Ghilardi said. \u201cBut that is not the case. It is just the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is possible, she noted, that other countries hold even more specimens that were not described in the scientific literature and therefore could not be counted.<\/p>\n

The same study also found that more than 200 species were described in publications that did not include any Brazilian scientists as coauthors, despite Brazilian legislation requiring foreign research on Brazilian fossil material to be conducted in partnership with local institutions.<\/p>\n

Wave of Repatriation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Paleontologist Serjoscha Evers<\/a> at the Universit\u00e4t Freiburg, who authored the 2023 study on the Irritator<\/em> fossil, wrote in an email to Eos<\/em> that he welcomed the news of the dinosaur\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

However, he also wondered whether the decision is just \u201ca diplomatic favor that resulted from the public pressure, or foreshadowing a broader wave of repatriations based on a legal conclusion that the fossils are unlawfully in German custody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paleontologists involved in the Irritator<\/em> restitution efforts said that since the campaign began, they have been receiving emails from museums and institutions worldwide seeking information on the procedures for returning fossils to Brazil.<\/p>\n

\"Reconstruction
Germany recently said it would \u201chand over\u201d the Irritator challengeri<\/em> fossil to Brazil. This illustration suggests what the dinosaur would have looked like before it was a fossil, about 110 million years ago. Credit: PaleoGeekSquared\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Pl\u00e1cido Cidade Nuvens Paleontology Museum, the final destination of the Irritator<\/em>, has received several restitutions itself, including 45 fossils originally collected from the Araripe Basin and previously held by the University of Zurich in Switzerland, the fossil of a crustacean that was in the possession of the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste in Argentina, and a fish fossil seized in Italy.<\/p>\n

According to Pinheiro, the museum\u2019s director, paleontologists and the Brazilian government have listed at least 90 Brazilian holotypes still held in Germany. And the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Eos<\/em> that it is currently negotiating the return of nine fossils held in undisclosed countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been talking with colleagues from the museums where these materials are hosted, and they seem very favorable to returning them,\u201d Pinheiro observed. \u201cIt is a huge advancement and a great change of behavior from important museums that have been holding heritage from the Global South.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Sofia Moutinho (@sofiamoutinho.bsky.social<\/a>), Science Writer<\/p>\n

Citation:<\/strong>\u00a0Moutinho, S. (2026), Germany to return contested dinosaur fossil to Brazil,\u00a0Eos, 107, <\/em>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1029\/2026EO260167<\/a>. Published on 22 May 2026.<\/h5>\n
Text \u00a9 2026. The authors.\u00a0CC BY-NC-ND 3.0<\/a>
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.<\/h6>\n

Source: Science \u2013 eos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following a long restitution campaign, both countries announced their willingness to repatriate the 110-million-year-old spinosaurid Irritator challengeri.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15116161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15116159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1.jpg",1024,576,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-620x349.jpg",620,349,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-940x529.jpg",940,529,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1.jpg",1024,576,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1.jpg",1024,576,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-998x576.jpg",998,576,true],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-670x446.jpg",670,446,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1.jpg",1024,576,false],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-510x510.jpg",510,510,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15116159-irritator-challengeri-skull-1024x576-1-300x300.jpg",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"Science<\/a>","tag_info":"Science","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15116159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15116159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15116159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15116160,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15116159\/revisions\/15116160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15116161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15116159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15116159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15116159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}