The tricky relationship between palaeontology and poor countries
More is known of rich-world than poor-world fossils. That is bad
WHAT YOU see depends on where you stand. The unarguable fact that most palaeontologists live in the rich world means two things. One is that the fossils of these places are far better studied than those of poorer countries, which is a scientific pity. The other is that what knowledge has been garnered about poor-country palaeontology is frequently the result of visits by rich-country palaeontologists.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Digging deep”
From the January 8th 2022 edition
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