[MSN] Chinese scientist asks U.S. auctioneers not to put dinosaur nest under hammer.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Chinese scientist asks U.S. auctioneers not to put dinosaur nest under
hammer.       


A Chinese dinosaur scientist on Saturday appealed to an auction house in Los
Angeles not to auction a rare fossilized dinosaur nest that was smuggled out
of China. 

Auction house Bonhams and Butterfields is to auction the well-preserved
dinosaur nest containing fossil eggs with the embryos exposed on Sunday. 

U.S. media reported that the 65 million-year-old dinosaur nest was unearthed
in south China's Guangdong Province in 1984. 

"It's certainly been smuggled out of China through illegal channels," said
Xing Lida, a dinosaur expert with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology
and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

Xing, who is also chief editor of www.dinosaurnet.cn, told Xinhua that
smuggled fossils cannot be used in research and are banned from auction
under international regulations. 

It has been reported that the nest contained 22 unhatched eggs arranged in a
circular pattern along the edge. Embryonic remains were uncovered in 19 eggs
and one egg was removed for study. Some eggs were so well-preserved that the
embryo curled inside is visible. 

The nest is believed to be that of a raptor. The auction house estimates it
will fetch 180,000 to 220,000 U.S. dollars. 

Xing said, "It's strange that one egg was removed for study, because it's
forbidden to publish articles on smuggled fossils in international academic
circles." 

He had seen a dinosaur nest with more than 30 eggs in Nanxiong in Guangdong
Province, the place where the fossil to be auctioned was found, in early
1990s. 

Well-preserved dinosaur embryos were really rare and many Chinese scientists
had only seen such fossils in pictures, Xing said. 

According to U.S. media, Gerald Grellet-Tinner, a dinosaur expert at the
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, said such a fossilized nest was
a "bonanza" find that could tell scientists a great deal about dinosaur
growth and development. 

He argued the nest should be housed in a museum in China, where it was
discovered, and not in private hands. 

"I'm totally outraged," he was reported as saying. "A lot of scientific
information will be lost." 

The theft and smuggling of fossils was a serious problem in China, Xing
said. Smugglers often broke fossils to make them easy to conceal and carry,
destroying important scientific information. 

He urged the U.S. auction house not to auction the smuggled fossil and
return it to China for research. 

Source: Xinhua