# Historical bias in palaeontological collections: Stylophora (Echinodermata) as a case study

Pauline Guenser, Khadija El Hariri, Nour-Eddine Jalil, Bertrand Lefebvre

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Pauline Guenser, Khadija El Hariri, Nour-Eddine Jalil, Bertrand Lefebvre. Historical bias in palaeontological collections: Stylophora (Echinodermata) as a case study. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 2025, 144 (1), pp.6. 10.1186/s13358-024-00345-2. [https://hal-05356471](https://hal-05356471). [https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00345-2](https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00345-2).

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# Historical bias in palaeontological collections: Stylophora (Echinodermata) as a case study

Pauline Guenser<fnref n="1" />*, Khadija El Hariri<fnref n="2" />, Nour-Eddine Jalil<fnref n="3" />,<fnref n="4" /> and Bertrand Lefebvre<fnref n="1" />

**Abstract**

Scientific colonialism (sensu Galtung, 1967) has grown in interest for the last decades in all scientific disciplines, including Palaeontology. In particular, Raja et al. (2022) showed that the Paleobiology Database (PBDB) was mostly based on research investigations from and/or in higher-income countries (i.e., the Global North). This scientific practice, better known as “parachute science”, often implies a transfer of material from their country of origin (in the Global South) to another country of collection (in the Global North). We show that this global pattern can also be observed at a lower taxonomic scale by focusing on Stylophora, an extinct class of echinoderms. Based on a database gathering the 129 stylophoran holotypes including information of their year of description, country of origin, country of collection and author affiliation, we show comparable results to those of Raja et al. (2022). Indeed, 85% of stylophoran species originated from the Global North. Transferred material represents 17% of the holotypes and none of the corresponding publications included local collaboration. We detail the most highlighting example of parachute science, the duo Morocco-France, to understand the consequences of the colonial history between these two countries in the scientific practice of French researchers in Morocco, as well as the solution brought by Moroccan researchers and government. These results, while not surprising, mean that scientific colonialism is indeed observed not only in global databases, but also in our daily work. Researchers from the Global North then can act to decolonize their problematic practice to rebalance knowledge producing to build a true Global Research Community.

**Keywords** Scientific colonialism, Parachute science, Morocco, Echinoderms

Handling editor: Christian Klug

*Correspondence:
Pauline Guenser
pauline.guenser@gmail.com

**Introduction**

As any discipline undertaken by human beings, science
can be used to serve other interests than the discipline
itself. Indeed, scientific research was used for politi-
cal purposes during the colonisation period. In particu-
lar, colonies were used to produce scientific knowledge
for their colonisers. This process is defined as “scientific
colonialism”, that is “that process whereby the centre of
gravity for the acquisition of knowledge about the nation
is located outside the nation itself” (Galtung, 1967). Even
if the term was defined during the decolonisation period,
the practice began more than a century before with, for
example, the journey of Charles Darwin on the HMS
*Beagle* between 1831 and 1836 (Darwin, 1840). The use
of the expression “scientific colonialism” in scientific

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

<footnote n="1">¹ Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, ENS de Lyon, LGL-TPE UMR 5276, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Laboratoire de Géo-Ressources, Géoenvironnement Et Génie Civil, Faculté Des Sciences Et Techniques, Université Cadi Ayyad, Boite Postale 549, 40000 Marrakech, Maroc</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ CR2P Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie – Paris, CNRS / MNHN / SU, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CP 38, 57 Rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Marrakech, Univ. Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech 40000, Morocco</footnote>
publications became more and more important from the 1970s onward, but the reverse process, “decolonising science”, appeared only in late 1990s (Fig. 1). Since the last decades, new terms have emerged to describe behaviours related to scientific colonialism and its consequences on the global scientific knowledge. Among them, “parachute science”, i.e. “investigators merely collect samples, return home and publish papers of no real use to scientists and citizens in developing countries” (Harris, 2002, 2004), has become more and more used last years (Fig. 1). Palaeontology is a scientific discipline that fits with this practice as the required material for palaeontological research, i.e. fossils, is sampled during field works and may be transferred from its country of origin to a different country of collection. Parachute science in palaeontology was addressed in recent publications in which authors evaluated the issue at a global scale (Chacon-Baca et al., 2023; Lenharo & Rodrigues, 2022; Monarrez et al., 2022; Raja et al., 2022). For instance, Raja et al. (2022) demonstrated that the Paleobiology Database (PBDB) was mostly based on research investigations from and/or in higher-income countries (i.e., the Global North). Recent investigations highlighted biases in online databases such as PBDB. Indeed, most of the fossil occurrences originate from higher-income countries in North America or West Europe, leading to potential distorted biodiversity patterns (Du et al., 2023; Servais et al., 2023). Then, the global practice of parachute science detected by Raja et al. (2022) could be due to a filtering of data input induced by PBDB contributors. Here, we want to address parachute science in palaeontology at a lower taxonomic scale using Stylophora, an extinct class of echinoderms that lived from the middle Cambrian to the late Carboniferous (ca. 510 – 300 Ma). This study is based on an extensive compilation of the literature and is thus less biased than the PBDB. We aim to (1) check whether the global patterns described by Raja et al. (2022) are comparable to the pattern described by the stylophorans, (2) decipher more

precisely the reasons of material transfer if any, and (3) evaluate the solutions already set up and future sustainable solution to rebalance knowledge producing.

## Material & methods

### Material

We worked with a database of stylophoran holotypes built from an extensive compilation of the available literature. A total of 129 holotypes has been described since 1858 (Billings, 1858) and new species are still regularly discovered (Chen & Han, 2013; Lefebvre & Ausich, 2021; Lefebvre et al., 2022a, b).

The database gathers different types of information for each holotype: (1) the Latin name of the holotype; (2) the year of description of the holotype; (3) the country of origin of the holotype, i.e. where the material was sampled; (4) the country of collection of the holotype, i.e. where the material is currently stored; (5) the bibliographic reference, e.g. “Kolata et al.”; (6) the presence/ absence of national co-author(s), i.e. is there at least one co-author that was affiliated to a laboratory from the country of origin of the holotype? (Table 1).

### Methods

First, we present the evolution of the number of holotypes through time with a 25-year interval. Based on the resulting bar plot we map the countries of origin at specific time intervals: before 1925; between 1925 and 1975; between 1975 and 2000; and after 2000, in order to represent the evolution of the diversity of countries of origin. In addition, for each time interval we show the proportion of publications that included or not local collaborators. Second, we mapped the holotypes moving from their country of origin to their country of collection, to show the transfer of material.

The graphical representations were produced on R (RStudio Team, 2020) with R base and ggplot2 package (Wickham, 2016). The database and the R script are

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 1** Frequency of the use of three terms through time based on Google Scholar search engine</figcaption></figure>
<table><caption>**Table 1** Illustration of the database with its first five rows</caption><thead><tr><td>Stylophoran taxa</td><td>Year</td><td>Origin</td><td>Collection</td><td>Authors</td><td>National authors</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Ateleocystites huxleyi</td><td>1858</td><td>Canada</td><td>Canada</td><td>Billings</td><td>local</td></tr><tr><td>Anomalocystites cornutus</td><td>1859</td><td>USA</td><td>USA</td><td>Hall</td><td>local</td></tr><tr><td>Placocystites forbesianus</td><td>1869</td><td>UK</td><td>UK</td><td>De Koninck</td><td>outside</td></tr><tr><td>Anatifopsis acuta</td><td>1872</td><td>Czech Republic</td><td>Czech Republic</td><td>Barrande</td><td>local</td></tr><tr><td>Anatifopsis bohemica</td><td>1872</td><td>Czech Republic</td><td>Czech Republic</td><td>Barrande</td><td>local</td></tr></tbody></table>

The complete dataset is available on GitHub

available on GitHub: https://github.com/PaulineGnsr/Stylophora_Colonialism.git

## Results

### Countries of origins and local collaborations

The lowest rate of new described holotypes was before 1925 with less than 10 holotypes per interval (Fig. 2A). It coincides with a low diversity of countries of origin as only sites from the Global North were investigated, that is North America (Canada and USA) and Europe (Czech Republic and UK) (Fig. 2B). At that time, the publications mainly included local collaborators.

From 1925, the number of new holotypes increased up to 56 between 1975 and 1999 (Fig. 2A). The countries of origin diversified including countries from the Global South such as Morocco and South Africa (Fig. 2C, D). Between 1925 and 1999, most of the publications did not include local collaborators but this proportion is reversed from 2000 (Fig. 2E).

### Transfer of material

The holotypes originate from 20 different countries (Fig. 3). The countries of origin that participate the most to the taxonomic diversity of the class Stylophora are France (31), Czech Republic (24) and USA (19), then Morocco (11), UK (10) and Australia (9). Among the 129 described holotypes, about 17% were transferred from their country of origin to a different country of collection. None of the corresponding publications included local collaboration. The transferred holotypes can be distinguished in 2–3 groups (Fig. 3A): (1) the main group of transfer is from South America, Africa, and Central Europe to Western Europe (Fig. 3B); (2) from Asia and Middle-East countries to Russia; (3) from South Korea to Japan. The country with the most transferred holotypes is Morocco (Fig. 3B). Indeed, the 11 holotypes originated from this country are stored either in France (7), UK (3) or Spain (1). The second country with the most transferred holotypes is the Czech Republic with three holotypes that are stored in German collections (Fig. 3B).

## Discussion

Holotypes of Stylophora species were first discovered in Global North countries, then in Global South countries from 1925. Even if countries of origin have started diversifying since this date, knowledge production and storage has still been monopolised by higher-income countries. We can see this in the decrease of the proportion of local collaborators in publications from 1925. Moreover, among the 129 holotypes described so far, about 85% were sampled, and 95% stored, in higher-income countries, and only 1/3 of the holotypes sampled in Global South countries are stored in their country of origin. The dataset we analysed is a compilation of literature knowledge. It is more complete and therefore less biased than online databases such as the PBDB. Yet, the results we present share similarities with those of Raja et al. (2022). For example, about 2/3 of the countries that contribute the most to the PBDB (Raja et al., 2022, Fig. 1b) are also countries that contribute to the taxonomic diversity of Stylophora (Fig. 3A), namely USA, Germany, UK, France, Canada, Russia, China, Australia, Spain, Japan and Argentina. This means that the global pattern depicted in Raja et al. (2022) is similar to the local taxonomic pattern we describe with stylophorans. Moreover, still according to Raja et al. (2022), Morocco is one of the most popular destinations for fieldwork and so a target for parachute science. In our study, Morocco is the 4th country with the most described Stylophora species. Indeed, Morocco is a famous country for Palaeontology (Blaizot & Jébrak, 2017; El Hassani, 2023). The Moroccan fossil record is highly diverse, exceptionally preserved and spans the most important events in the history of life, from the Precambrian (Latham & Riding, 1990) to the Quaternary with the earliest record of modern humans (Hublin et al., 2017), through the main biodiversification and mass extinction events (Cappetta et al., 2014; Lefebvre et al., 2016). Raja et al.'s (2022) statement is also true in our study as none of the holotypes sampled in Morocco are stored there (Fig. 3).

The transfers of Moroccan material to western European countries are the most highlighting example of
<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 2** Evolution of the number of new species described and their country of origin. **A:** Evolution of the number of new species through time per 25 years. **B–E:** Map of the originated countries of the new species (in yellow) and the proportion of inclusion of at least one local collaborator in each related publication, before 1925 (**B**), between 1925 and 1974 (**C**), between 1975 and 1999 (**D**) and since 2000 (**E**).</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 3** A) Map of the countries of origin of the 129 holotypes of Stylophora species. The transfer of holotypes is highlighted with arrows that are orientated from the country of origin to the country of collection. B) Focus on the main group of transfer centred in Europe</figcaption></figure>

parachute science in our study. These countries – France, UK and Spain – incidentally share a strong colonial link as Morocco was already at the centre of European powers since the 1800s, then under a French protectorate from 1912 to 1956. The Cherifian Scientific Institute – now called the Scientific Institute (SI; University Mohammed V) – was built during this period, in 1920, thanks to Professor Louis Gentil. The goal of this Institute was to promote and coordinate the study of Natural Sciences from Moroccan sites, including fossil material (El Hassani, 2023). However, Earth Sciences (including Palaeontology) were less considered than other scientific disciplines as shown by the few communications published in SI associated journals (Bulletins de la Société des Sciences Naturelles du Maroc; Les Mémoires de la Société des Sciences Naturelles du Maroc) (El Hassani, 2023). Thanks to collaborations with the Moroccan Geological Survey (Ministry of Energy, Mines and

Environment and associated journal Notes et Mémoires du Service géologique starting from 1927) and investigations from foreign researchers, the interest in Geology in the SI started to grow from the 1970's. Currently, the associated SI Museum holds rich geological and palaeontological collections in Morocco. Regarding our study and the absence of local collaborators in publications including Moroccan samples, it doesn't mean there was no exchange with local experts/scientists. Fieldwork campaigns usually include local experts, involving guides, some amateurs and rarely researchers, who help foreign researchers in digging fossils. Despite local contacts for fieldworks, local collaborators are missing in the publications about stylophoran taxonomy. Nevertheless, the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and the University Cadi Ayyad in Marrakech have collaborated for more than 20 years, resulting in a huge palaeontological collection of more than 6,000 sampled fossils stored in
Marrakech. We can also cite different agreements signed between Morocco and western European institutions: between the National History Museum of Paris and the Cherifian Phosphate Office (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 2005), and between the University of Bath (UK) and the University of Cadi Ayyad (Marrakech, Morocco). These collaborations has led to publications with mixed authorships (Cappetta et al., 2014; Khaldoune et al., 2017; Longrich et al., 2023).

Yet, few Moroccan palaeontologists have been trained and the high palaeontological richness and diversity in Morocco is unknown to the majority of the native population and even unspecialised scientific community. Moreover, an international fossil traffic has been developed for decades, which could harm research investigations in the long term (El Hassani, 2023). To regulate this illegal fossil traffic and raise awareness among Moroccan population, several projects were undertaken by Moroccan institutions and associations: the Association for the Protection of Moroccan Geological Heritage 'APPGM' has been created in 2000, with the support of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Environments, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) dedicated to the preservation of the Moroccan geoheritage; in 2014, the M'Goun Geopark, and associated Azilal Museum, got the UNESCO "Global Geopark" label, becoming the first African geopark integrating the UNESCO network since 2014; the law n°33-13 (Dahir n°1-15-76 on July 1st 2015, Official Bulletin n°6384 of Morocco Kingdom) and the decree 116 (February 2000) forces an authorisation before extracting and marketing geological material, including fossils, minerals and meteorites; a national day of geological heritage was defined on November 14th in 2017; aware of the heritage and scientific importance of the fossils of the Phosphates, the Cherifian Phosphate Office has mobilized human and financial resources to constitute a collection that today feeds a museum project, "Islands of resistance", initiated by academics, that allowed the constitution of university palaeontological collections (Casablanca, El Jadida, Fez, Marrakech, Oujda), a university natural history museum (Marrakech) and a museum of palaeontology (Oujda). Finally, the government is developing a project to build a National Museum of Archaeology and Earth Sciences in Rabat. All these initiatives show that Moroccan scientists and their government work for preserving and highlighting their palaeontological heritage as well as training a future generation of Moroccan geologists and palaeontologists.

Morocco can be taken as a relevant case of sustainable solutions to get rid of parachute science and rebalance the knowledge producing between Global North and Global South countries. One could raise that global knowledge in Palaeontology would be less than it is today

without parachute science, or could even ask what science would be in Global South countries without parachute science. We acknowledge the massive amount of data and material obtained through this problematical practice. However, it does not mean that we should not interrogate it. We, scientists today, are not responsible of how past researchers produced knowledge, but reproducing their practices make us responsible of maintaining global inequalities in Science. And changing our practices starts by characterizing the issue – the main goal of the present study – and propose new and improving ways of doing research. Regarding specifically the transfer of holotypes away from their country of origin, transferring back the material can be envisaged if Global South countries have museum structures equipped with human and material resources. The digital management of collections and their public availability through online collaborative platform would enable tracking loans and storage locations. As shown with the Moroccan example, scientists from the Global North should support Global South researchers through an active participation in training Global South students and including local permanent collaborators when the investigations involve local material. The new generation of Global South researchers will then handle the material from their own country and be able to produce their own research. Researchers from Global North countries should also pay attention to the transfer of knowledge, both in terms of scientific knowledge and that relating to the conservation and management of collections. Publishing open or diamond access is one solution to make the obtained knowledge becoming accessible to anybody interested globally. All these proposed solutions will help to rebalance knowledge producing and build a true Global Research Community.

## Conclusion

Our analysis on Stylophora holotypes highlighted the unilateral relationships between Global South and Global North countries, with a transfer of material from the former to the latter. In particular, all the holotypes originated from Morocco are stored in western European countries (France, UK and Spain) that played a significant role in its colonial history. Moroccan scientists and governments have worked for decades to preserve and highlight their geological heritage and raise awareness among their population and abroad to prevent illegal fossil traffic. Moreover, international agreements have been signed to stimulate fair collaborations including Moroccan authors. Our results are in agreement with those of Raja et al. (2022), meaning that colonial history does not only impact global databases but also our daily work. Palaeontologists from the Global North have the power to avoid parachute science in modifying their way to
practice Palaeontology. They can build fair collaborations that involve systematically local authors in the publications, as well as actively participating in training a new generation of Global South researchers that will handle their local material. Our study emphasises the need of deciphering in detail the consequences of the colonial history of the different countries in their practice of Palaeontology. This work is crucial to find sustainable solutions to rebalance the knowledge producing and build a true Global Research Community.

**Acknowledgements**

We thank Christian Klug, Imran Rahman and one anonymous reviewer for their comments and suggestions which greatly improved the manuscript.

**Author contributions**

BL and PG provided the data. PG analysed the data and wrote the first version of the manuscript. KEH and NEJ were major contributors in writing the discussion in giving insightful information about the scientific history of Morocco. All authors read, revised and approved the final manuscript.

**Funding**

This study has been funded by the ANR project ECOBOOST (ANR-22-CE01-0003).

**Availability of data and materials**

The datasets generated and analysed as well as the R script used to perform the analyses and produced the figures are available on GitHub: https://github.com/PaulineGnsr/Stylophora_Colonialism.git The editor and reviewers can have access to the GitHub repository by adding collaborators. Please ask the corresponding author if you have any question.

**Declarations**

**Ethics and consent to participate**

Not applicable.

**Competing interests**

The authors declare no competing interests.

Received: 26 September 2024 Accepted: 18 December 2024

Published online: 21 January 2025

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