[Animals] US arrests gang of hunters for massive theft of dinosaur bones resulting in untold losses

[FNX Magokiler]

The Attorney General's Office of the United States Department of Justice has this week filed charges against four people allegedly involved in a massive dinosaur bone smuggling scheme. According to court documents, thousands of pounds of dinosaurs and other fossils were secretly excavated on public land in Utah. Some were sold at gem fairs and others were shipped to China after being labeled as building materials or gems. The poaching and subterfuge, court documents allege, lasted from at least March 2018 until early this year.

"By extracting and processing these dinosaur bones to make consumer products for profit, tens of thousands of pounds of dinosaur bones have lost virtually all of their scientific value, leaving future generations unable to experience the science and wonder of these bones," United States Attorney Trina Higgins said in a news release.

"This is a considerable volume of dinosaur bones," says David Evans, a paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum (Canada) who is not involved in the case. He adds that it is unusual for so much material to be taken from government lands, and that many people are likely unaware of the magnitude of the black market for dinosaur specimens in the United States.

 

 

Until now, one of the largest known dinosaur fossil busts came in 2006, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized more than 8,000 pounds of fossils—including thousands of dinosaur eggs, pine cones, petrified stones and prehistoric crabs) at a gem and mineral exhibition in Tucson, Arizona. These objects had been illegally stolen from Argentina.

In Utah, dinosaur bones found on private land can be legally excavated and sold, but it is a crime to dig up and sell fossils discovered on federal or state land. The charges against the four Utah defendants include: conspiracy against the US, false labeling, theft of US property, money laundering and attempted merchandise smuggling, among others.

A dinosaur trafficking plot
Beneath the surface of Utah is a rich cache of dinosaur fossils, revealing details about prehistoric animals such as carnivorous allosaurs and backbone stegosaurs. Nearly three-quarters of the state is public lands managed by federal or state agencies, and recently found fossils include a huge collection of Utahraptors and an entirely new species, a distant relative of the Triceratops.

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.es/ciencia/2023/10/detiene-banda-cazadores-furtivos-robo-masivo-huesos-dinosaurio-ee-uu