It's goodbye Lenin, hello dinosaur as fossils head to Mongolia museum: "In the building's new incarnation the centrepiece is likely to be the seven-metre long Tyrannosaurus bataar – also known as Tarbosaurus bataar, because experts dispute its taxonomy – which prompted adispute when it was put on sale by a New York auction house last May. In December, prosecutors in the US said Erik Prokopi, a fossils dealer from Florida, had agreed to surrender the nearly completeTyrannosaurus bataar and other fossils – paving the way for their return to Mongolia – after pleading guilty to smuggling dinosaur specimens into the US. They described Prokopi as "a one-man black market in prehistoric fossils".
Bolortsetseg Minjin, the New York-based founder of the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs, said the case had proved a turning point, raising awareness among the Mongolian public and officials. "Mongolia is known to have many different species and the preservation is unique: you find complete skeletons in the Gobi desert, which is very rare.""
'via Blog this'
Bolortsetseg Minjin, the New York-based founder of the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs, said the case had proved a turning point, raising awareness among the Mongolian public and officials. "Mongolia is known to have many different species and the preservation is unique: you find complete skeletons in the Gobi desert, which is very rare.""
'via Blog this'
