In 1995, a museum in southwestern Germany acquired an unusual fossil from the cream-colored limestone of northeastern Brazil: a 120-million-year-old dinosaur covered in an odd material that one scientist thought might be algae.

Now, 25 years later, scientists have confirmed the predator is one of a kind, the first feathered, non-avian dinosaur found in the Southern Hemisphere—and Brazilian scientists are calling for the fossil to be returned from Germany. Since the dinosaur, named Ubirajara jubatus, was unveiled on December 13 in the journal Cretaceous Research, days of online protests with the hashtag #UbirajaraBelongstoBR have questioned whether the scientifically invaluable fossil was exported legally.

“This need not be happening, as this fossil should never have left Brazil,” says Flaviana Lima, a