Aline Marcele Ghilardi (born 8 June 1986) is a Brazilian biologist and

palaeontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

. She was one of those responsible for the return of the "''

Ubirajara jubatus "''Ubirajara''" ("lord of the spear") is an informal genus of compsognathid theropod that lived during the early Cretaceous period in what is now Brazil. The manuscript describing it was available online pre-publication but was never formally pu ...

''" dinosaur fossil to Brazil in 2023 by promoting the ''Ubirajara belongs to Brazil'' campaign (#UbirajaraBelongstoBR). She is currently a professor and researcher at the

Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte The Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (, UFRN) is a public Brazilian university funded by the Brazilian federal government, located in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Formally established on December 18, 1960, it includes 60 ...

Career

Ghilardi was born on 8 June 1986, in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

. She graduated from UFSCar, where she did her post-doctorate in 2019, her master's degree in Ecology and Natural Resources from PPGERN-UFSCar in 2017, and her doctorate in Geology from PPG-GI

UFRJ The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public research university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the country and is one of the Brazilian centers of excellence in teaching and research. Brazil's ...

in 2015. Since 2020, she has been the coordinator of DINOlab - Diversity, Ichnology and Osteohistology Laboratory, linked to the

(UFRN), where she has been teaching since 2019. The focus of her research over the last 15 years has been on

palaeoichnology A trace fossil, also called an ichnofossil (; ), is a fossil record of biological activity by lifeforms, but not the preserved remains of the organism itself. Trace fossils contrast with body fossils, which are the fossilized remains of part ...

palaeoecology Paleoecology (also spelled palaeoecology) is the study of interactions between organisms and/or interactions between organisms and their environments across geologic timescales. As a discipline, paleoecology interacts with, depends on and informs ...

and palaeohistology. Ghilardi also carries out research into the physiology and diseases of extinct beings. She was one of the researchers who discovered a parasite preserved inside dinosaur bones; the research was published in October 2020 in the scientific journal ''

Cretaceous Research ''Cretaceous Research'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. The journal focuses on topics dealing with the Cretaceous period and the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abst ...

''. She has published articles on paleontology in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' and journals from publishing houses such as

PLOS PLOS (for Public Library of Science; PLoS until 2012) is a nonprofit publisher of open-access journals in science, technology, and medicine and other scientific literature, under an open-content license. It was founded in 2000 and launched it ...

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

, and

Wiley-Blackwell Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...

. In 2018, she coordinated studies in the city of

Sousa, Paraíba Sousa is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the states of Brazil, state of Paraíba in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of Brazil. It lies in the region called the Valley of the Dinosaurs, Paraíba, Valley of the Dinosaurs, ...

, to study dinosaur footprints more than 136 million years old that were being destroyed by erosion caused by animals stepping on the ground. In an interview with Diário do Sertão, she said that the action was urgent and aimed to preserve historical heritage. Ghilardi and her husband, fellow palaeontologist

Tito Aureliano Tito Aureliano Neto, or simply Tito Aureliano (Recife, December 28, 1989), is a Brazilian paleontologist, researcher, science communicator, and writer. Biography Although born in the city of Recife, Tito moved to Brasília as a child, with his p ...

, are responsible for the

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel '' Colecionadores de Ossos''. In May 2019, she took part in ''

Conversa com Bial ''Conversa com Bial'' (English: ''Talk with Bial'') is a Brazilian late-night talk show hosted by journalist and former Big Brother presenter Pedro Bial. The show premiered on May 2, 2017, on Rede Globo, and features interviews An intervi ...

'' show, talking about the possibility of recreating dinosaurs. In 2021, she took part in '' Folha de S.Paulo'''s ''Habitat'' podcast.' Ghilardi was responsible for the "#UbirajaraBelongstoBR" campaign to retrieve the "''

''" fossil, which had been illegally removed from Brazil to Germany. In July 2022, twenty-seven years after the removal, German authorities decided that the fossil should be returned to Brazil. This was done in June 2023.

References

External links

Canal no Youtube , Coleccionadores de Ossos

Conversas com a SBP , Aline Ghilardi e Tito Aureliano (2020)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghilardi, Aline Living people 1986 births Scientists from São Paulo Academics from São Paulo Brazilian paleontologists Brazilian biologists