US seeks to return 67 million-year-old dinosaur skull to Mongolia after it was sold at auction
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New York federal prosecutors are seeking to return a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull to Mongolia after an anonymous buyer purchased it at auction in the United States in 2007 for $276,000.
Prosecutors filed papers in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to formally secure the 32-inch-long skull. Federal authorities say the California buyer who purchased it already agreed to give it up.
Manhattan prosecutors say the 67 million-year-old skull will be among more than a dozen dinosaur skeletons that have been returned to Mongolia since 2012. They say other items returned to Mongolia include a nest of dinosaur eggs and the relics of numerous small and unidentified lizards and turtles.
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Prosecutors say the skull was unlawfully taken from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and was smuggled into the United States in June 2006.