University of the West Indies biologist Ryan Mohammed says an effort is under way to bring a giant glyptodon shell back to Trinidad from a museum in Milwaukee.
Mohammed, who identified himself as a biologist in UWI’s Department of Life Sciences, described the shell’s return as a potential next major repatriation. He said the whereabouts of the animal’s skull remained unknown and that efforts were being made to trace it.
He linked the discovery to oil exploration in southern Trinidad. According to his account, Apex Oil Company workers found glyptodon remains while preparing a site for an oil rig in the Forest Reserve area around the 1920s.
Mohammed said an entire carapace, or protective shell, and a skull had been recovered. He identified the shell as the specimen now held in Milwaukee but did not name the museum.
He also described further fossil discoveries during oil exploration preparations in Forest Reserve around the 1970s, although he expressed uncertainty about the date. Much of the material, he said, emerged during surface grading and site preparation.
The proposed return would bring back a substantial specimen of one of the giant animals that inhabited prehistoric Trinidad. Mohammed did not give a timetable for its return.
