Titled “The Stars of the Jurassic”, the exhibition highlights these fossils more than 150 million years old, discovered in the Boulahfa region in the Middle Atlas, in the commune of El Mers, province of Boulemane, and considered by experts in Morocco and Europe as a unique species in the world. “This exhibition is the first in the world to present extremely rare discoveries of dinosaurs,” Stefan Frieden, owner of the Pailhac Dinosaur Museum in Switzerland, told local newspaper 32 Today, adding that “when they were first discovered once, everyone thought they were fake; however, tomography revealed their authenticity.”
The exhibition of these fossils in the Swiss museum sparked a wave of reactions from experts who, in view of the scientific value and the importance of these rare fossils as Moroccan natural and geological heritage, requested their return. in Morocco. In a post on to be “really sad to see these parts of the Spicomellus dinosaur, which were illegally extracted and exported, exhibited in Switzerland”.
Read: Amazing discovery of dinosaur fossils in Morocco
“The fossils exhibited at the Swiss museum were illegally exported from the east of the Moroccan Middle Atlas,” denounced on its Facebook page a collective of young people interested in the tourism sector in the province of Boulemane and the Middle Atlas, stressing that “These fossils were probably sold at an auction of this type of trade in Spain a few months ago.” Omar Zafaty, who participated in the study on dinosaurs in Boulemane, and whose results were published last March, indicated for his part that “the exhibition of Spicomellus fossils of Moroccan origin at the Swiss museum, highlights highlight the role of local authorities and civil society in the province of Boulemane in the preservation of this natural and geological heritage in the face of looting and destruction.
“The bones of Spicomellus will only stay with us temporarily; due to their scientific importance, the owner of these bones decided to return them to the country where they were discovered (Morocco). We will begin, in collaboration with world-renowned paleontologists, to return these bones to Morocco, where they will be preserved in a scientific collection in a paleontological institute,” reacted Stefan Frieden on the official pages of the museum on social networks.
