France to return smuggled dinosaur skeleton to Mongolia

Paris, France: France was to hand over a 70 million-year-old dinosaur skeleton to Mongolia Monday which was looted from the Gobi desert and seized by French customs.

The "extremely rare" fossil of a Tarbosaurus baatar, considered to be the Asian cousin of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, was seized by French officials in 2015.

Public Accounts Minister Amelie de Montchalin was to hand it and around 30 other items including dinosaur eggs over later Monday.

They had been looted from the Gobi Desert before passing through South Korea and were confiscated by customs during a seizure in the central town of Gannat in February 2015.

"This is an entire Tarbosaurus, estimated at around 700,000 euros when it was seized, but since then the market has exploded, so we could say it is worth two to three times that amount today," Sophie Hocquerelle, communications manager for French customs, told France 2 television on Sunday.

She described the find as "an exceptional discovery".

Tarbosaurus bataar lived during the Cretaceous period and disappeared some 65 million years ago.

There have been no specimens of Tarbosaurus baatar reported outside of Asia.

Thousands of ancient fossils have disappeared from Mongolia since American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews -- supposedly the inspiration for the movie character Indiana Jones -- discovered dinosaur eggs there a century ago.

Paleontologists and smugglers alike have descended on the desert ever since.

The Mongolian government has sought to reclaim the lost relics, hoping to bring home fossils long held in foreign museums and the curiosity cabinets of private collectors.

Fossils must be authorised for export and without such a licence are usually returned to their country of origin.

Dinosaurs first appeared at least 230 million years ago, while the first humans are believed to have appeared on Earth only around six million years ago.

In 2021, the world's largest triceratops skeleton ever unearthed at eight metres long was sold at auction in Paris for a gargantuan 6.6 million euros.