National Museum researchers to go on exchange program in US

The experts lost research material in the fire

Published on 17/12/2018 - 18:41 By Vinícius Lisboa - Rio de Janeiro

The scientists who were deprived of their research material following the fire that destroyed the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, on September 2, were invited on a diplomatic mission in the US for an exchange program at the Smithsonian Institute, linked to the US government associated with one of the world’s biggest museum complexes.

The group is made up of 14 experts who were eager to finish their research. Flight tickets and lodging will be paid for by the program, and an allowance will also be provided. These scholarships, said National Museum Director Alexander Kellner, help the institution as they allow experts to continue their work.

Beatriz Hörmanseder, 26, who holds a master’s degree in geopaleontological heritage, is among the scholars chosen to take part in the initiative. Since she was an undergraduate student, she had been working on the fossil of a dwarf crocodile found in Ceará state, which was about to be identified as a new species in her master’s thesis. The fire destroyed the animal’s remains, and forced her to start over from scratch by taking up another specimen for analysis.

“I lost a unique specimen. The project was unique,” said the expert, who added it is rare for a scientist to have the opportunity to describe a new species in paleonthology. “Now I’ll have to describe animal I still don’t know. I had a lot written about the previous one, the whole bibliography. But now I’ll have to start from scratch.”

Hörmanseder will work on the description of another crocodile specimen, whose fossil was found in the US in 1914 and stored years later in Brazil, at the Mineral Resources Research Center.

In her program overseas, the researcher will have the chance to compare this fossil that of other species previously described in the US. The 18-day trip will provide her with the opportunity to be guided by foreign researchers mentioned from her bibliography. “It’s a unique opportunity. I’m meeting people I had only become acquainted with from scientific articles,” she said.

Translation: Fabrício Ferreira -  Edition: Davi Oliveira / Mariana Branco

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