US Man Admits to Dinosaur Smuggling

Started by Silver Knight, 29-12-2012

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Silver Knight



Quote
A Florida fossils dealer has admitted smuggling dinosaur bones into the US, including those of a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar from Mongolia.

A court in New York heard that Eric Prokopi sold the skeleton at auction in May for more than $1m (£600,000).

In June, US officials seized the bones after Mongolia said they were stolen.

In a plea bargain, Prokopi gave up any claim to the skeleton as well as to others seized by authorities which included remains from China.

He also admitted illegally importing a Chinese flying dinosaur, two oviraptors and a duckbilled creature known as a Saurolophus.

The court heard that Prokopi, 38, was arrested in October as a lorry arrived at his home loaded with fossils.

He faces a maximum of 17 years imprisonment when he is sentenced in April.

Shopping list

US Attorney Preet Bharara said authorities would now begin the process of returning the fossils to their countries of origin.

"Fossils and ancient skeletal remains are part of the fabric of a country's natural history and cultural heritage, and black marketers like Prokopi who illegally export and sell these wonders, steal a slice of that history," he said.

Mongolia has been seeking the return of the Tyrannosaurus skeleton - which it says was stolen from the Gobi desert - through the US courts.

In court on Thursday, Assistant US Attorney Martin Bell read out a list of the dinosaurs that he said Prokopi had illegally imported.

"It's among the larger dinosaur shopping lists you'll see today," he told Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis.

He said a second, almost complete, Tyrannosaurus skeleton had been found at Prokopi's home in Gainsville, Florida.

Mr Bell said one oviraptor skeleton was found at Prokopi's home and the other at another residential dwelling in Florida.

One of the Saurolophus skeletons was sold at an auction in California for $75,000 but later confiscated by authorities.

Prokopi admitted illegally importing skeletons from Mongolia and China.

Heritage Auctions in New York, which sold the Tyrannosaurus skeleton in May, said Prokopi had spent a year restoring and remounting what had been a loose collection of bones.

Prokopi was described as a commercial palaeontologist who sold coral, fossils and other items over the internet.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20855935

Quotebreslau: if i cant cheat i dont wanna play
breslau: period

jaik

Blake.H: And im also working on whipping him into shape
Blake.H: He's nice
Blake.H: He doesn't moan
Blake.H: The sheer obedience is enough to fuel my erection anyway

Ragolution

This doesn't make sense.

Fossils are basically imprints in mud/stone.
The bones we see are just plaster casts of the bone shape.

Stupid brits.
You can make like 300 dinosaurs using a single (perfect) fossil.

Silver Knight

Quote from: Ragolution on 29-12-2012
This doesn't make sense.

Fossils are basically imprints in mud/stone.
The bones we see are just plaster casts of the bone shape.

Stupid brits.
You can make like 300 dinosaurs using a single (perfect) fossil.

You could replicate the shape yes, but not the age or the fact that it was once a living thing.

Quotebreslau: if i cant cheat i dont wanna play
breslau: period

Ragolution

Quote from: SilverKnight on 29-12-2012
Quote from: Ragolution on 29-12-2012
This doesn't make sense.

Fossils are basically imprints in mud/stone.
The bones we see are just plaster casts of the bone shape.

Stupid brits.
You can make like 300 dinosaurs using a single (perfect) fossil.

You could replicate the shape yes, but not the age or the fact that it was once a living thing.

I don't think you understand how fossils work, m8