SCIENCE WITH A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE: THE MAHAJANGA BASIN PALEONTOLOGY PROJECT (LATE CRETACEOUS, MADAGASCAR)

The Mahajanga Basin Project, focused on the discovery and analysis of fossil vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar, was initiated three decades ago. The resulting assemblage of vertebrate fossils, collected over the course of 13 expeditions, consists of ~25,000 specimens, many of them exquisitely preserved skulls and skeletons (in some cases with soft tissue preservation). These include some of the most complete and best-preserved specimens for entire clades of Gondwanan vertebrates. Almost all major terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate groups living on southern landmasses at the time are represented: cartilaginous, lobe-finned, and ray-finned fishes, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodyliforms, non-avian theropod dinosaurs, sauropod dinosaurs, birds, and mammals. Over 21 new species have been named and described (with more to come), many with uniquely bizarre adaptations the result of lineage evolution in isolation for tens of millions of years. Our discoveries have provided the opportunity to test hypotheses concerning the plate tectonic and paleobiogeographic history of not just Madagascar but Gondwana as a whole.

This research could not have been conducted without developing strong collaborations with various Malagasy entities including national, regional, and local governments, the University of Antananarivo, and local communities. A series of collaborative agreements stipulate that all holotype specimens and one-half of the remaining specimens must be returned to Madagascar upon completion of study, with the other half reposited in the Field Museum (1993–2015) and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (2016–present). Collaboration has involved:

1. Formal and informal training of Malagasy personnel in field techniques, collections management, fossil preparation, and research methods.
2. Joint research initiatives resulting in international co-authorship on published papers.
3. Building (and outfitting with specimen cabinets) a collections facility at the University of Antananarivo for specimens returned to Madagascar.
4. Establishment of the Madagascar Ankizy Fund (“ankizy” means “children” in the Malagasy language), a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide education and healthcare for children living in our remote field research areas.