E-Paper
IISER Pune scientist part of a research paper in ‘Nature Ecology and Evolution’
A team of seven palaeontologists from Germany, the UK, South Africa, Brazil, and India, investigated how colonial history and socio-economic factors affect the global distribution of fossil data
PUNE A faculty member of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Devapriya Chattopadhyay, PhD, has contributed to a research project on the effect of colonial history and socio-economic factors on the study of fossils, and proposes steps to reduce global disparities.
The project is titled ‘Nature Ecology and Evolution’ and Chattopadhyay’s input is on “Colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity”, a collaboration with authors from Germany, Africa, South America, and the UK.
A team of seven palaeontologists from Germany, the UK, South Africa, Brazil, and India, investigated how colonial history and socio-economic factors affect the global distribution of fossil data. The paper represents a collaboration that developed during the pandemic between women in STEM, across four continents.
Along with the paper, the authors have released plain language summaries of the work in 20 languages.
“Fossils provide an essential record of how life on Earth has evolved. However, the fossil record is incomplete, primarily because the dead remains of an organism rarely survive the vagaries of nature to emerge as a fossil. Apart from the natural scarcity of the fossils compared to the living creatures, the fate of fossils after their discovery plays a significant role in our ability to use them meaningfully to reconstruct past biodiversity,” said Chattopadhyay.
The authors observe that due to historical and socio-economic factors, the post-discovery journey of fossils resulted in an uneven geographic distribution of fossils. Using scientific publication and geographic data from the Paleobiology Database (www.paleobiodb.org), which is a widely used database by palaeontologists to investigate past biodiversity patterns, the authors show that 97% of paleontological data is generated by researchers based in Northern America and Western Europe.
The authors also observe that many affluent countries conduct a large amount of research abroad, often without collaboration with local researchers in the countries they are working in. The authors point out that this is a demonstration of “parachute science”, where lower-income countries are exploited for their fossils, but the higher-income countries retain the knowledge and power.
“This knowledge imbalance, resulting from colonial history, transfer of fossils from the collected regions to museums of colonising countries, and unfavourable socio-economic conditions in previously colonised countries, negatively impacts paleontological research,” she added.
The paper indicates that one of the most affected countries is Myanmar, as a result of the availability of amber through commercial routes that has increased the availability of amber to foreign researchers while limiting access to researchers from Myanmar. This is also observed in countries rich in vertebrate fossils, such Morocco or Mongolia, given the popularity of vertebrate fossils among palaeontologists as well as the general public. These countries, along with others such as China or Brazil, have also witnessed illegal fossil trafficking in the past.
This study, led by Nussaïbah B Raja and Emma M Dunne, proposes a few steps for the paleontological community to adopt for reducing the global disparities in palaeontology. They encourage the community to develop more equitable, ethical, and sustainable collaborations based on mutual trust and respect.
