Dinosaurs of Marovoay: Inauguration of a new research center

On July 19, the Basin Project, a paleontological research team composed of American and Malagasy university researchers, inaugurated a new research center in Berivotra, a village in the Commune of Antanambao Andranolava, District of Marovoay. The new research center, using an investment amount of 50.000 US dollars, consists of a research room, a refectory and a stocking room. The construction of the center was exclusively financed by the Simons Foundation, an American paleontological foundation which has been working in Madagascar since 2007. During his inaugural speech, the Government representative, Razafimbelo Téophile stated that “fossils are part of mineral richnesses and Berivotra is a fossil protected zone which represented a valuable heritage for the country. This area is controlled by a mining code whose violation may result in 5 up to 20 years of imprisonment plus a fine going from 500.000Ar to 100.000.000Ar”.  

The paleontological research in Berivotra started back in 1993. At the time, a paleontological team from the University of Stony Brook, USA, in collaboration with the University of Antananarivo and the Madagascar Institute for the conservation of tropical ecosystem first came to Berivotra and began their research on the dinosaurs and other fossils of this area. Up to now, researches on Marovoay’s dinosaurs are still going on, and will continue until researchers could reconstitute the environment existing in Berivotra 70 million years ago, and the climate change elements leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Talking about what the team has so far accomplished, Dr Rasoamiaramanana Armand Hubert, a paleontologist at the University of Antananarivo, reported that “during the first phase of the research, the team could reconstitute the skeleton of the biggest carnivorous dinosaur living in Berivotra: the Majungatholus. The skeleton is 7m long. And after being brought to the United States of America for a thorough study, the skeleton was repatriated to Madagascar and given to the former President Marc Ravalomanana who, in turn, exposed it in the Madagascar showcase at Iavoloha. And now that the showcase does not work any longer, we intend to ask the President Andry Rajoelina’s permission to let the skeleton be exposed in the Q1 room at Ankatso”. However, the Akiba Museum of the University of Mahajanga remains the most appropriate place for the skeleton to be permanently exposed