Scientific practices stemming from colonialism, whereby middle- and low-income countries supply data for high-income countries and the contributions of local expertise are devalued, are still prevalent today in the field of palaeontology. In response to these unjust practices, countries such as Mexico and Brazil adopted protective laws and regulations during the twentieth century to preserve their palaeontological heritage. However, scientific colonialism is still reflected in many publications describing fossil specimens recovered from these countries. Here, we present examples of ‘palaeontological colonialism’ from publications on Jurassic–Cretaceous fossils from NE Mexico and NE Brazil spanning the last three decades. Common issues that we identified in these publications are the absence of both fieldwork and export permit declarations and the lack of local experts among authorships. In Mexico, access to many fossil specimens is restricted on account of these specimens being housed in private collections, whereas a high number of studies on Brazilian fossils are based on specimens illegally reposited in foreign collections, particularly in Germany and Japan. Finally, we outline and discuss the wider academic and social impacts of these research practices, and propose exhaustive recommendations to scientists, journals, museums, research institutions and government and funding agencies in order to overcome these practices.

-Ten species of Carboniferous brachiopods of the orders Productida and Orthotetida are described. The material occurs in Santiago Ixtaltepec, considered as one of the most important regions where Paleozoic rocks of Mexico are exposed. Ozora sp., Tolmatchoffia keokuk and Marginatia sp. were found in rocks from the Santiago Formation (APS-1), meanwhile the other taxa were collected in different strata from the Ixtaltepec Formation (API-2, API-5, API-6 and API-7). The record of the genera Ozora and Marginatia and the species Tolmatchoffia keokuk corroborate the Tournaisian-Visean age for the Lower Member of the Santiago Formation. The presence of Productus concinnus at API-2 level of the Ixtaltepec Formation places it in at least Visean age. Antiquatonia sp., Orthotetes mixteca, Derbyia sp. and ?Schuchertella sp. were found in previously dated Pennsylvanian strata . The fossil associations and the lithology allowed to relate each level where brachiopods were found with an intertidal, subtidal or peri-reef paleoenvironment. The presence of typical taxa from the Tournaisian of the Mid-Continent (United States) in the Santiago Ixtaltepec region suggests that there was a marine connection that joined both areas at least since the Early Mississippian. The occurrence of Productus concinnus in the Ixtaltepec Formation (API-2) confirms that Europe and Santiago Ixtaltepec region were linked during the Middle Mississippian. Antiquatonia, Orthotetes, Derbyia and Schuchertella are considered as cosmopolite genera whose presence in localities from the Mid-Continent is very common. Keywords

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