Fossils dealer admits smuggling 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus worth $1million into US

Eric Prokopi smuggled dinosaur bones into US pretending they were from lizards 'and other reptiles'
Father-of-two - who ran business selling fossils - faces up to 17 years in prison
Commercial paleontologist was described as 'a one-man black market in prehistoric fossils'

By SAM ADAMS

PUBLISHED: 04:00 GMT, 17 October 2012 | UPDATED: 16:53 GMT, 28 December 2012

A Florida father-of-two has admitted smuggling stolen dinosaur bones into the US - including those of a Tyrannosaurus he sold for more than $1 million.

Eric Prokopi of Gainesville, 38, stole the skeletal remains of dinosaurs - including a nearly complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus bataar, a relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex - from Mongolia and China.

He came to the attention of federal officials earlier this year when he sold the Tyrannosaurus fossils to a Manhattan buyer for $1.1 million.

In a plea bargain, Prokopi gave up any claim to the skeleton as well as to others seized by authorities and admitted illegally importing a Chinese flying dinosaur, two oviraptors and a duckbilled creature known as a Saurolophus, the BBC reports.

Speaking in court in New York on Thursday, Assistant US Attorney Martin Bell revealed that a second, almost complete, Tyrannosaurus skeleton had also been found at Prokopi's home.

He faces up to 17 years imprisonment when he is sentenced in April.

The US Department of Homeland Security conducted an investigation into Prokopi's fossil dealings and uncovered a laundry list of questionable exchanges, which culminated in his arrest in October.

Upon Prokopi's arrest, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara referred to him as a 'a one-man black market in prehistoric fossils.'Prokopi smuggled the $1.1 million Tyrannosaurus bataar from Mongolia but claimed on US customs forms that the fossils were 'broken bones' belonging to lizards and other reptiles that were imported from the UK, according to an investigation carried out by Homeland Security special agent Daniel Brazier. Prokopi estimated their value at $15,000.

The Tyrannosaurus bataar, also known as the Tarbosaurus, was native to Mongolia and lived nearly 70 million years ago. Their fossils were first discovered in 1946 during a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to the Gobi Desert. Mongolia strictly prohibits the removal of dinosaur fossils from its territory.

Prokopi, who describes himself as a 'commercial paleontologist,' put the skeleton up for sale in the US with a Texas-based auction house. In his description of the skeleton, he wrote that the dinosaur 'ruled the food chain of the ancient floodplains that are today's Gobi Desert.'

He continued: 'The body is 75 percent complete and the skull 80 percent... Measuring 24 feet in length and standing 8 feet high, it is a stupendous, museum-quality specimen of one of the most emblematic dinosaurs ever to have stalked this Earth.'

The Manhattan US attorney's office seized the skeleton from Prokopi's transaction and determined, through examinations by several paleontologists, that the bones were dug up in Mongolia.

Prokopi had claimed the information on his US customs documents was truthful. He said the fossils were chunks of rocks and broken bones when he received them.

Transforming the specimens 'into an impressive skeleton took thousands of hours and every penny my wife and I had, but it was fascinating,' Prokopi told the Associated Press earlier this year.

'We were thrilled and couldn't wait to share him with the world, and hoped it would inspire others to see the magic of paleontology and develop a love of science and appreciation of nature,' Prokopi said.

At the time of his arrest, Prokopi owned a business in Florida called 'Everything Earth,' which formerly went by the name of 'Florida Fossils.' He has a wife and two children.

The international trade in dinosaur fossils is now a multimillion dollar industry, with collectors prepared to pay huge prices for the most sought-after specimens.

Museums and other conservationists want science to come first, but for many of those involved in sourcing fossils today the lure of the mighty dollar appears to be winning out.

Many countries have strict regulations on the sale of fossils - and those caught doing so illegally face stiff penalties.

A recent case in the US saw renowned dinosaur hunter Nathan Murphy sentenced to three years on probation for stealing 13 dinosaur bones from central Montana's Hell Creek badlands in 2006.

He pleaded guilty to theft of government property. Mr Murphy had risen to fame after discovering one of the world's best-preserved brachylophosaurus dinosaur fossils in 2000.

The theft of fossils is not a new thing however.

In the 19th Century the great 'Bone Wars' were marked by a rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope (of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia) and Othniel Charles Marsh (of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale).

Each of the two paleontologists used underhanded methods to try to out do the other, including bribery, theft, and even the destruction of bones.

The pair searched for fossils in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming, with both using their wealth to finance large scale expeditions between 1877 and 189.