Lost with the National Museum of Brazil – Santanaraptor – Luto #MuseuNacional

On September 2, 2018, the National Museum of Brazil (Museu Nacional) was gutted by fire. 2018 was the Museu Nacional’s 200th year.

This post is one of series in which I discuss an important specimens that may have been lost to science in the blaze.

In 1999, Alexander Kellner, a researcher at the Museu Nacional, published a paper describing the holotype for the genus Santanaraptor (“Santana Formation thief”). This holotype (MN 4802-V) consists of several bones of a juvenile individual and fragments of mineralized soft tissues (including epidermis, muscle, and possibly blood vessels).

Bibliography
Kellner, A. W. A. (1999). “Short Note on a new dinosaur (Theropoda, Coelurosauria) from the Santana Formation (Romualdo Member, Albian), northeastern Brazil”. Boletim do Museu Nacional (Serie Geologia). 49: 1–8.