Florida fossils dealer admits dinosaur smuggling

 

 The Tyrannosaurus Bataar was discovered seven years ago in the Gobi desert

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.