A dinosaur egg discovered during a crackdown in Australia on the illegal fossil trade was returned Monday to the country where it spent the first 72 million years of its life, Argentina. The plant-eating Titanosaurus' egg, which weighs eight kilogrammes (17.5 pounds), was confiscated in Melbourne in January 2005 while being smuggled to the United States.
It was handed back to Argentina's ambassador in Canberra along with another 122 kilogrammes of fossils seized later from the same dealer. John Cobb, Australia's assistant environment minister, said the blitz had sent a strong message world-wide that the illegal export of cultural heritage would not be tolerated. "Argentine fossils are incredibly important world-wide and are the key to understanding the evolutionary phases of the whole of life," he said.
Among the other fossils returned to Argentina were pine cones and seeds from Jurassic-era Araucaria conifer trees, aged between 175 and 154 million years old. Argentinian ambassador Pedro Villagra Delgado thanked Australia for the crackdown.
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