Ching Yinggi: Dinosaur Eggs Found in China

It was normally the busiest time of the day in Wang Lixia's office on the sixth floor of the Geological Museum of China, but at 10:30 am on Tuesday, everyone stopped talking, waiting for a VIP guest to arrive. A nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs is displayed in Beijing on Tuesday. The nest, estimated to be at least 65 million years old, was returned to China after being smuggled to the United States. Finally, Wang broke the silence. Everyone swarmed to be the first ones to see the famous visitor they had been waiting for five years: The egg fossils were unearthed in Guangdong province in 1984, but smuggled out of China. In 2003, a collector in the United States purchased the nest from a source in Taiwan, but it was not until 2006, that dinosaur experts in China became aware of the eggs, when they were auctioned in Los Angeles for $419,750. The experts appealed to the Chinese government, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began efforts to bring the dinosaur nest home. China's claims persuaded the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Los Angeles police to investigate the smuggling case, and within two months the fossilized eggs had been confiscated, but the buyer of the nest contested ownership, and it was only recently that judicial authorities ruled that the fossils belonged to China. Tao Qingfa, an official from the Ministries of Land and Resources, who took part in the nest's repatriation, said that the case set an example for China and US cooperation on law enforcement, and will be a basis for further action against fossil smugglers.