When agents with Homeland Security Investigations questioned Godwin about the skull in , he told them he didn't know it was illegal to possess such items until he heard about a case involving a fossil smuggler, court records say.
Attorney Dimitri N. Rocha said in the amended forfeiture lawsuit. Multiple Tyrannosaurus bataar skulls were dug out of the Gobi desert and illegally smuggled out of Mongolia, federal officials say. From there, they wound up in the hands of U.
Since federal authorities began a crackdown in on the little-known black market in dinosaur bones, more than 18 specimens have been returned to Mongolia.
Two men were convicted in federal court of smuggling fossils into the U. Actor Nicolas Cage was among buyers who agreed to part with their bataar skulls. His bataar skull was unearthed from the Nemegt Basin in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia between and , the lawsuit says.
The Gobi Desert is fertile ground for dinosaur fossils such as the Tyrannosaurus bataar, an Asian relative of Tyrannosaurus rex that roamed the Earth during the Cretaceous period.
Bataar fossils were first found in that part of Mongolia during a expedition, according to the forfeiture lawsuit, filed in Wichita Falls. The fossils aren't known to be found elsewhere in the world, experts say. In Mongolia, which is nestled between China and Russia, antiques and relics such as dinosaur fossils are the property of the government even if they're excavated from private land, the forfeiture lawsuit says.
Villa said the forfeiture action means that someone can buy an antiquity from a U. Villa has said U. And he said there is case law favorable to his client that involved other antiquities imported into the U. Federal judges in those cases, he said, were "satisfied that the government met the burden of proof.
Painter said he was surprised Godwin was contesting the forfeiture lawsuit and expected it would be "perhaps a vertical uphill battle. Godwin bought the fossil from Rick Rolater , who owned two By Nature Gallery stores — one in Wyoming and one in Colorado, court records show. Rolater, 72, was at the time the largest U. Rolater tried to hide his dinosaur fossil from agents, who eventually seized it. He then told agents that months earlier he had sold one of his bataar skulls to Godwin, who owned about a third of the By Nature stores, court records say.
Rolater was charged in Wyoming federal court with conspiracy to smuggle fossils into the U. The stolen property act is one of the key federal laws that address antiquities trafficking, New York lawyer Stephen Juris wrote in an article last year.
Villa said there's no indication that the government is seeking criminal charges against Godwin. Support Us. Keep Dallas Observer Free. Since we started the Dallas Observer , it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas, and we'd like to keep it that way.
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As you enter the museum, there will be a downloadable Snapchat lens of the first new dinosaur species discovered by the Perot Museum's Dr. Tony Fiorillo and Dr. Ron Tyoski. Hold out your hand and you'll have your very own pocket Pachyrhinosaurus to take pictures with. On your way up the escalator to Level 4 you'll encounter a new, jaw-dropping installation of the second most complete T.
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