Let's Spin The Wheel Of Racism...

And this time it lands on...wait, paleontology? Eh..?

The public image of palaeontologists as dusty, but rather affable academics, could be due an update. The study of ancient life is a hotbed of unethical and inequitable scientific practices rooted in colonialism, which strip poorer countries of their fossil heritage, and devalue the contributions of local researchers, scientists say.

What scientists say this..?

Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, an international team of palaeontologists argue that there has been a steady drain of plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, prehistoric spiders, and other fossils from poorer countries into foreign repositories or local private collections – despite laws and regulations introduced to try to conserve their heritage.

*blinks* 

“It might not be the colonialism we think of, when we imagine 19th-century ships sailing across the Atlantic, but it is still a modern form of neocolonialism where we’re being extractive and exploitative for our own gain at the expense of lower income countries,” said Emma Dunne, a palaeobiologist at the University of Birmingham, and a co-author on the paper.

"Alan! ALAN!!"

 

*sighs*

The team also called for more rigorous journal guidelines and education on research ethics, greater enforcement of fossil laws, and sanctions against those involved in unethical practices. Finally, fossils should be repatriated to those communities from which they have been taken, they said.

Even if those 'communities' don't have any museums to hold them, Emma?