{"id":109488,"date":"2026-06-11T15:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/smuggled-dinosaur-fossils-return-to-mongolia-after-two-decades\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T15:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:18:13","slug":"smuggled-dinosaur-fossils-return-to-mongolia-after-two-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/smuggled-dinosaur-fossils-return-to-mongolia-after-two-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Smuggled dinosaur fossils return to Mongolia after two decades"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mongolia has recovered a rare dinosaur skeleton and a trove of fossils illegally exported two decades ago, authorities said Wednesday, concluding years of efforts to return the palaeontological treasures.<\/p>\n

The collection includes a Tarbosaurus bataar skeleton, estimated to be more than 50 per cent intact, along with 28 groups of fossilised dinosaur remains originally found in Mongolia\u2019s Gobi Desert, according to police.<\/p>\n

The bones had been illegally taken from Mongolia in 2006 \u201cwith the aim of making a profit\u201d, said D. Munkhkhuyag, head of the police public relations department.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>
A Mongolian official walks past boxes of dinosaur fossils during a handover ceremony in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, on June 11, 2026. \u2014AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

French customs agencies confiscated the fossils between 2013 and 2015, and began returning<\/a> them a year later to Mongolia under international conventions to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

Following the lengthy process of returning the fossils, they arrived in the capital Ulaanbaatar on Thursday and will be housed in Mongolia\u2019s new National Museum of Natural History, where they will be studied and eventually put on public display.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Mongolian<\/div>
Mongolian officials show a Tarbosaurus dinosaur fossil to the press during a handover ceremony in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, on June 11, 2026. \u2014AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe dinosaur fossil is priceless and a unique piece of heritage,\u201d Manchuk Nuramkhan, the museum\u2019s director, told a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted that children and young people will have the opportunity to see Mongolia\u2019s dinosaur heritage firsthand and learn from it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tarbosaurus bataar, a close relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, lived around 70 million years ago, with evidence of its existence almost exclusively found in Mongolia\u2019s Gobi Desert.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/div>
A Tarbosaurus dinosaur fossil is seen on display during a handover ceremony in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, on June 11, 2026. \u2014AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Manchuk said the return of the fossils was an important victory for efforts to recover cultural and scientific heritage taken from Mongolia and highlights growing international cooperation against the illegal trade in antiquities and fossils.<\/p>\n

Mongolia has intensified efforts in recent years to recover dinosaur fossils smuggled abroad, as demand from private collectors and auction houses has fuelled an international black market in rare palaeontological specimens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mongolia has recovered a rare dinosaur skeleton and a trove of fossils illegally exported two decades ago, authorities said Wednesday, concluding years of efforts to return the palaeontological treasures. The collection includes a Tarbosaurus bataar skeleton, estimated to be more than 50 per cent intact, along with 28 groups of fossilised dinosaur remains originally found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2026\/06\/11183726eabbf22.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}