Human
70-Million-Year-Old Smuggled Dinosaur Skeletons Returns to Homeland in Mongolia
Staff Reporter
First Posted: May 07, 2013 08:42 AM EDT
The skeleton of a smuggled 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar that triggered an international custody battle finally returns to its homeland in Mongolia from where it was looted.
Several years ago, the 8-feet high and 24-feet long Bataar skeleton, cousin of Tyrannosaurus Rex, was found in a basement in Queens, New York. It was illegally smuggled from its Asian homeland by paleontologist and fossil dealer Eric Prokopi. The dinosaur was unearthed from the Gobi desert between 1995-2005, reports Nature World News.
The skeleton was seized by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after it was sold last year at an auction in New York for more than $1 million; however, the deal was suspended with the intervention of the U.S. authorities. Since last June, the skeleton has been in the custody of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the case was tried at the Manhattan federal court.
Prokopi was arrested Oct. 12 and was charged with one count of conspiracy to smuggle illegal goods, keeping stolen property and providing false statements, another count of smuggling goods into the United States and one count of interstate sale and receipt of stolen items. He has been sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment and was charged with a $250,000 fine.
"This dinosaur skeleton belongs in Mongolia, not on the black market," U.S. customs director John Morton said in a press statement.
Reports according to the government state that the dinosaur skeleton was mislabeled as reptile bones from Great Britain.
The dinosaur will be displayed as a centerpiece of a new museum known as the Central Dinosaur Museum of Mongolia.
See Now:
NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
More on SCIENCEwr
First Posted: May 07, 2013 08:42 AM EDT
The skeleton of a smuggled 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar that triggered an international custody battle finally returns to its homeland in Mongolia from where it was looted.
Several years ago, the 8-feet high and 24-feet long Bataar skeleton, cousin of Tyrannosaurus Rex, was found in a basement in Queens, New York. It was illegally smuggled from its Asian homeland by paleontologist and fossil dealer Eric Prokopi. The dinosaur was unearthed from the Gobi desert between 1995-2005, reports Nature World News.
The skeleton was seized by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after it was sold last year at an auction in New York for more than $1 million; however, the deal was suspended with the intervention of the U.S. authorities. Since last June, the skeleton has been in the custody of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the case was tried at the Manhattan federal court.
Prokopi was arrested Oct. 12 and was charged with one count of conspiracy to smuggle illegal goods, keeping stolen property and providing false statements, another count of smuggling goods into the United States and one count of interstate sale and receipt of stolen items. He has been sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment and was charged with a $250,000 fine.
"This dinosaur skeleton belongs in Mongolia, not on the black market," U.S. customs director John Morton said in a press statement.
Reports according to the government state that the dinosaur skeleton was mislabeled as reptile bones from Great Britain.
The dinosaur will be displayed as a centerpiece of a new museum known as the Central Dinosaur Museum of Mongolia.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone