People's Daily:Smuggled dinosaur nest may be a fake--Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

People's Daily:Smuggled dinosaur nest may be a fake

02 09, 2012

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By Cheng Yingqi (China Daily) 09:28, February 09, 201

Experts' opinions differ over veracity and worth of fossil back in China

BEIJING - A well-preserved nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs that was smuggled to the United States but returned to China may not be as valuable as first believed.

The 22 eggs are expected to clear customs at Beijing Capital International Airport this week and will be put on display at the Geological Museum of China.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the dinosaur eggs, believed to be at least 65 million years old, were unearthed in Guangdong province in 1984 and purchased by an American collector in 2003 from a source in Taiwan. They entered the US through Florida.

However, Chinese experts now question their value.

Zhao Zikui, leading dinosaur expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, believed the nest was probably faked and then sold outside China.

"Since the 1990s, a fascination for dinosaurs has swept across both China and the West, so dinosaur fossils, especially eggs, rose sharply in value," Zhao said.

"And making fake fossil eggs is simple, just using soil and fossilized eggshell fragments ."

In 2000, he said he saw farmers selling fossilized eggshell for between 100 and 120 yuan ($16 - 19) a kilogram.

According to Zhao, the farmers have been digging up actual fossil eggs and selling them for less than 10 yuan. The price rises to around 100 yuan when they reach Guangdong province or the place where they leave the country. After reaching Western countries, the price can increase tenfold.

"The most expensive fossil egg I have heard of was auctioned for more than $1 million, and is stored in a museum in the US," Zhao said.

"That one was really good. We can see clearly that half of the baby dinosaur had climbed out of the egg."

However, despite the brisk trade in fake eggs, experts believe that many genuine and valuable fossils have been smuggled out of the country and they vow to curb the illegal practice.

China has so far recovered more than 5,000 fossils, including an undisclosed number of dinosaur eggs from Australia, US, Canada and Italy between 2008 and 2010, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.

During this period, Chinese customs uncovered six smuggling cases in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing, involving more than 60 fossils, the ministry stated.

While no official estimates are available on the total number of dinosaur eggs being smuggled out of China, Zhao admitted the number was high.

"In the mid-1990s, we recovered more than 4,000 fossil eggs from a smuggler," he remembered.

"Last year, we set up a special committee with experts and officials from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the ministry and the customs department. Now we are carrying out an investigation into China's fossil reserves, and will launch a new project to create a conservation plan later this year."

Wang Lixia, a fossils expert with the Geological Museum of China, said they were trying every means to recover the country's lost fossils.

"It is easy to decide the value of gold but hard to tell the value of fossils, because they cannot be replaced," Wang said.

"In the past, we did not attach enough importance to our fossil reserves, and some fossils were smuggled from China. But now we are starting to value them."

Guan Fengjun, head of the geological department at the land and resources ministry, said the Chinese government had taken several measures to prevent the smuggling of fossil eggs.

Regulations state that people cannot dig for fossils inside a protected region without permission from the ministry, nor can they dig outside the regions without the permission of provincial authorities.

Also, protected fossils are not to leave the country except for use in scientific exchanges or exhibitions authorized by the Chinese government.

Wang said that in the future museums and protection areas would be established to safeguard fossils.

Is shell circle genuine?

BEIJING - When the dinosaur eggs fetched $419,750 at auction in Los Angeles in 2006, a group of experts inspected a picture of the nest online and concluded it must have been smuggled out of China.

They reported it to the Chinese government, which sought the return of the eggs and began a five-year investigation with the help of the US authorities and the auction house.

Dinosaur expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhao Zikui, suspects the nest was made from parts of fossil eggs taken from other nests.

"Based on the veins on the eggshells and their shape, the 22 fossil eggs are the kind commonly found in Guangdong, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces," he said.

Usually, dinosaur eggs are found in a circle with a diameter of no larger than 20 cm, he said. But with the auctioned nest, the circle is much larger.

Moreover, the larger ends of the eggs are normally arranged together, but the position of one egg in the returned nest has been reversed.

"In addition, since dinosaurs have two oviducts parallel to each other, they lay two eggs each time, and the eggs on the nest should be arranged in pairs, " Zhao said, adding that was not the case with this nest.

From http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/102774/7724167.html

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