U.S. Returns Smuggled Dinosaur Skeletons and Fossilized Egg to Mongolia

Several dinosaur skeletons and a fossilized egg, stolen from the Gobi Desert and smuggled into the United States, have finally been returned to Mongolia.

The U.S. officials, Thursday, returned the 80 million-year-old dinosaur skeletons to the Mongolian government to stock a museum. Along with the dinosaur skeletons, two relics of a kind of dinosaur was also returned, which according to a prosecutor is 'memorably stampeded' in a Hollywood movie.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told the Associated Press, "the fossilized remains of more than 18 dinosaurs recovered by federal authorities were transferred after a ceremony attended by Mongolia's ambassador to the United Nations. This is a historic event for the U.S. attorney's office, in addition to being a pre-historic event."

The U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) special agents seized the smuggled items during two different investigations and confirmed that they were illegally poached and smuggled out of Mongolia between 2005 and 2012.  The items received by the Mongolian government included an 'Oviraptor Egg' , 'Oviraptor Skeleton' , 'Hadrosaur skeleton' , 'Tyrannosaurs Bataar skeleton' , 'Oviraptor matrix containing the remains of five Oviraptor skeleton' and a 'Hadrosaur skeleton'.

Since these items do not belong to any private collection or owner, they will be displayed at a national museum in Mongolia.

"Today, we return a veritable nest of dinosaurs that includes two additional Tyrannosaurus bataar skeletons, along with numerous other examples of fossils of dinosaurs native to the Gobi Desert," said Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to Imperial Valley News. "This is a historic event for the U.S. Attorney's Office, in addition to being a pre-historic event, and we are proud to participate in the return of these dinosaur skeletons to their rightful home."

To escape federal authorities, commercial paleontologist Eris Prokopi from Williamsburg, disassembled some chunks of bones from a Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton while sneaking it into the country. The bones were later joined and sold at an auction for more than a million dollars.

Last month, Prokopi, was sentenced to three months imprisonment.