Historical and ongoing inequities shape research visibility in Latin American aquatic mammal paleontology

Abstract

Latin American aquatic mammal fossils offer key insights into the evolution of life in the Southern Hemisphere. However, many fossils are housed in Global North institutions and are studied by overseas researchers. Latin American women researchers also face gender bias that undermines their ability to study fossils, publish, and gain peer recognition. We conducted a bibliographic analysis of studies on fossil aquatic mammals published between 1990 and 2022 to investigate the impacts of scientific colonialism and biases on research and citation patterns in Latin American paleontology. We show that Global North-based researchers published more on Latin American fossils than their Latin American counterparts. Multinational teams authored nearly half of the publications, which are still heavily skewed toward Global North authors. Women led 24% of the articles and were underrepresented in most studies. Papers with more authors received more citations; however, papers with a higher proportion of Latin American authors and published in languages other than English received lower citation rates. The journals’ impact factor affected citation rates for articles authored by Latin American and women, but not by Global North researchers or men. Our paleontology case study shows widespread invisibility for Latin American researchers.