Mongolia President Enters Fray Over T. bataar Fossil

And the feud continues! As some of you already know, a few days ago a rare tyrannosaurid skeleton (T. bataar), was auctioned off and sold for just over $1,000,000. The problem here is that this skeleton was stolen out of Mongolia, and the country would like it back. Here’s a bit of information from Huffington Post that was published yesterday:

“The president of Mongolia says the skeleton, which stands 8 feet tall and 24 feet long (2.4  by 7.3 meters), was almost certainly taken illegally out of his country. American and Mongolian paleontologists have supported President Elbegdorj Tsakhia’s claim that this dinosaur, a species sometimes called Tyrannosaurus (aka Tarbosaurus) bataar, is from Mongolia, where these close relatives of the North American Tyrannosaurus rex are found.”

“So far at least, the remains of tarbosaurs haven’t shown up in many places. In fact, all fossils that can be positively identified as tarbosaur remains come from one spot in the Gobi Desert.”

“‘The specimens we can clearly tell are tarbosaurus, and all of the nice material of Tarbosaurus comes from a particular rock formation,’ said Lawrence Witmer, an anatomist and paleontologist at Ohio University. ‘So we all feel pretty confident this specimen almost certainly comes from Mongolia.’”

“We want this dinosaur to go back to Mongolia, where it belongs; that is the sole purpose of this,’ said Mongolian paleontologist Bolorsetseg Minjin as she stood on the sidewalk with other protesters near the auction in Manhattan on Sunday (May 20).”

Let’s hope it is taken back to its rightful country and studied by professionals, as well as being viewed by the public. If you’d like to read the full article from HP, click this link!