About the Authors
- Alexander Mudroch
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* E-mail: mudroch@iipd.de
Affiliation Initiative of Independent Palaeobiologists, Hannover, Germany
- Ute Richter
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Affiliation Initiative of Independent Palaeobiologists, Hannover, Germany
- Ulrich Joger
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Affiliation Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
- Ralf Kosma
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Affiliation Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
- Oumarou Idé
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Affiliation Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, Université Abdou Moumouni, Niamey, Niger
- Abdoulaye Maga
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Affiliation Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, Université Abdou Moumouni, Niamey, Niger
Competing Interests
Volkswagen Financial Services, a provider of money for buyers of cars of Volkswagen AG in Germany, are funders of non-profit social, cultural, and charity projects. As part of this engagement a certain amount of money was donated for the project in Niger. The scientific research was part of a greater project in Niger involving the Germany, Niger, and the NGO Cargo (Touareg Aid) where German partners built a nomad school and delivered food to nourish the nomad children (mainly in Touareg). In exchange for structural development measures in the north of the Niger, the team of scientists lead by the State Natural History Museum Braunschweig were allowed to conduct the two dinosaur digging campaigns in 2007 and 2008. The whole project was partly sponsored by Volkswagen Financial Services without any requirements. No commercial interests were involved. The money was donated for non-profit reasons for a cultural and charity project. None of the crew was or is employed by Volkswagen Financial Services. The authors were free in all their professional scientific decisions. The publication of scientific results was and is not part of the interests of Volkswagen Financial Services. The money they donated to the project was partly used to conduct the fieldwork. No other participation was intended by the donator. Publication of results is the sole interest of the scientists involved. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Author Contributions
Conceived and designed the experiments: AM UR UJ RK. Performed the experiments: AM UJ RK. Analyzed the data: AM UR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AM UJ RK. Wrote the paper: AM UR. Gave permission to conduct fieldwork: OI AM.