The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized some smuggled dinosaur remains and conducted an investigation. Eight kinds of remains including small and large bones and skulls have been proven to be brought from Mongolia. Mongolia and the USA have already signed an agreement on cooperation against smuggling of paleontological findings. In accordance, the US side handed over the findings to the Mongolian side on April 5.
Specialist at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences G.Dulamsuren: The issues of transportation of the paleontological artifacts are being discussed at the moment. Among the findings are a skull of Alioramus, parent specimen of T-Rex Bataar. The meat-eater specie is considered extremely rare. The US side has valued it to be worth 300 thousand USD.
It is planned that the findings will be brought back to Mongolia within this June. Allegedly, there are also 4-5 dinosaur findings in the hands of others, including skulls. There are many cases of skull smuggling, as the dinosaur skulls are more expensive. A priceless finding, which was returned from Belgium to Mongolia last week was the skeleton of a baby Archaeopteryx, dating 70 million years back.
Mongolia has obtained back over 20 dinosaur findings from smugglers and, reportedly, even greater number of artifacts are spread around the globe, which collectively can make up a museum treasury. Mongolia ranks top in the world after China and the USA by the numbers dinosaur fossils.