Russian border guards seize dinosaur fossils smuggled from Mongolia
Posted on: Friday, 19 March 2004, 06:00 CST
Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
Ulan-Ude, 19 March: Border guards seized two fossil dinosaur fragments in a carriage of the Beijing-Moscow train at Naushki railway station, Buryatia [Lake Baykal area] in the early hours of this morning.
The palaeontological valuables were located in a ventilating shaft of the carriage. The criminals had wrapped the fossilized bones of up to 18 cm long and weighing 400 g in total in toilet paper and Scotch tape. The pangolin fossils were numbered and varnished, which makes it possible to suppose that they had been stolen earlier, the Baykal area regional border directorate of Russia's FSB [Federal Security Service] told ITAR-TASS.
None of the train passengers claimed the package. The fossils are being sent for an expert examination.
This is not the first attempt to smuggle fragments of the skeletons of prehistoric pangolins to Russia. There were two attempts to smuggle fossils last year, both were foiled. Three years ago 15 fragments of three dinosaur eggs were seized on the Beijing- Moscow train at Naushki station.
The smugglers are trying to ship palaeontological finds discovered in Mongolia via Russia to Europe. The sands of Gobi Desert contain the fossils of pangolins who lived on the territory of Central Asia 150m-170m years ago. Private collectors are ready to pay several hundred thousand dollars for fossils that remain intact.
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