back to article US authorities round up ILLEGAL DINOSAURS for repatriation

A group of unusual Asian immigrants, smuggled into the US by unscrupulous criminals, has been returned to its country of origin following an investigation by federal immigration and security operatives. The AP reports that US Attorney Preet Bharara announced the repatriation of no less than 18 distinguished Mongolians this …

  1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    Poached Dinosaur eggs

    Have one of these for breakfast on a regular basis, and "morbidly obese" will soon seem too slight as a phrase to describe your problems. No wonder US immigration doesn't want them in the country

    Still wonder what they would taste like

    1. wowfood

      Re: Poached Dinosaur eggs

      Not sure, but if flintstones is anything to go buy I'd gues pretty darn good. That and roast pterodactyl.

    2. Sweep

      Re: Poached Dinosaur eggs

      Chicken eggs are dinosaur eggs so wonder no more.

    3. Martin Budden Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Poached Dinosaur eggs

      I prefer my dinosaur eggs in an omelette with mushrooms and goats cheese and fresh truffles, but you go ahead and poach yours if you really want.

      Icon: Should go nicely with a Flanders Red Ale, thanks very much :-)

  2. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Coat

    Erik Prokopi

    Now there's a man with skeletons in his cupboard.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    private sector paleontologist

    I always knew the careers advice at my school had been rubbish.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: private sector paleontologist

      I guess some would say that Prokopi is a regular "Indiana Bones"!!

      Thank you! I'm here all week, and if fossilized, for the next several hundred million years!!

  4. Arachnoid

    In this case

    Indiana Jones and several 18/19th century UK "explorers" are well overdue a day in court for a slap on the wrist by the Magistrate.I guess the British Museum needs to actually start returning artifacts instead of reputedly arguing their ownership.

    1. Rich 11 Silver badge

      Re: In this case

      Except that taking artifacts wasn't illegal in the 18th or 19th centuries, at least not in many countries. Now it is, and rightly so.

      1. Arachnoid

        Re: In this case

        Erm just because one gets away with it doesnt make it any less morally objectionable.

        BTW so what about the Presidents http://www.break.com/video/dumb-girl-2656321

        1. Marshalltown

          Logic - logic - logic and a little history

          The Elgin marbles, as just one instance, left Greece before the modern nation existed. The owners at the time, Ottoman Turks, were letting the marbles disintegrate, so in what way was removing and preserving them immoral? It is rather like agreeing that Argentina has some sort of legal, historical claim on the Falklands. There was no Argentina when the the Brits claimed the islands. So how could Argentina have any form of "claim" let alone a "moral" one? There is a flagrant historical ignorance in much of the politically correct silliness passed off as "morality." No one "go away" with anything. What the Greeks really ought to be demanding back is Constantinople.

          What is really pathetic about this story is that there is currently no clear-cut Federal protection for fossils from the US. There are laws that lack regulations - agency policies - and whim. In effect Chinese fossils are safer in the US than the home - ah - fossilized variety.

          1. qwertyuiop
            WTF?

            Re: Logic - logic - logic and a little history

            "removing and preserving them" - would that include removing the original colour from them (they would have been painted, not plain marble)? Even the British Museum shamefacedly admitted 15 years ago that they had been damaged by "heavy handed cleaning" whilst in its possession (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/543077.stm).

            1. Marshalltown

              Re: Logic - logic - logic and a little history

              Think of it this way. Yes indeed, the BM definitely damaged the marbles, but they are still better shape than they would have been. Just like arguing that artifacts be "returned" to political entities that didn't exist when the artifacts were removed, ignorance of the history of conservation and museology is no excuse for holding the past to current standards. We can wish they "knew then" what we "know now," but we cannot make it so. That was then, this is now, and there is absolutely no evidence that human race is any more morally superior now than it was in the past.

      2. JLV

        Re: In this case

        Well, by whose laws was it legal then, exactly?

        Laws conveniently put in place by the occupying European nations, where the artifacts now reside? It's not like a country like Egypt or India had much choice in the matter then, izzit?

        Not a big fan of Western guilt tripping about most things myself. But in this case, I'd say the stuff should either be purchased or sent back. Canadian First Nation (Indian) tribes got their masks back from Ottawa a while back and that's only fair.

    2. John 110
      Joke

      Re: In this case

      Scottish joke -

      "Return the Elgin Marbles to Elgin"

    3. Marshalltown

      Re: In this case

      Silly and pointless argument. The assertion of "ownership" in most of these cases is based upon political views and not a few items returned would almost immediately vanish into a black market. The "artifacts" - and BTW dinosaur fossils are not artifacts or artefacts - could be returned, yes. But to whom would you return them? The current government of the country that presently controls the geography from which they derived? ISIS would appreciate that. The Elgin Marbles - hmmm, Greece, where they came from, or Turkey, the polity which controlled the chunk of geography at the time? Do we make an exception since Turkey is now a democracy and not the Ottoman Empire? How about we ask Athens to secede from Greece so that we can return the Marbles to the city state from which they came? After all, when the Elgin Marbles were carved there was no political entity called "Greece." The "return" arguments are a perfect example of the real meaning of "politically correct."

      The sole purpose served in these types of arguments is the process of "current politics," and the feeling of "moral righteousness" by the advocates. And, "punishing" many of those 18th and 19th c "collectors" ignores the reality that they often acted to preserve items that would otherwise be irretrievably lost. The Egyptian government of the 19th century for instance was staunchly Muslim. It had no use for ancient ruins, or ancient statuary as anything but building materials, any more than the governments of Egypt earlier had any use for the Library of Alexandria for anything but a source of fuel or the Taliban had use for the Buddhist images of Bamiyan.

  5. Falanx
    FAIL

    Dinopedant

    I'm fairly certain they mean *Tarbosaurus* bataar. Tyrannosaurus was an North American genus.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Dinopedant

      There weren't any dinosaurs in N America because of the flood, unless the pilgrims brought them with them.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dinopedant

        "There weren't any dinosaurs in N America because of the flood, unless the pilgrims brought them with them."

        Check http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/exhibits/alberta_fossil_trail.htm

  6. Nathan Brathahn
    Trollface

    The US hates illegal aliens

    The Roswell crew from 1947 must have had visas

    1. NogginTheNog
      Coat

      Re: The US hates illegal aliens

      "The Roswell crew from 1947 must have had visas"

      Why had they been blocked by PayPal?

      1. Roger Varley

        Re: The US hates illegal aliens

        Bloody Hell - you can tell it's Friday, can't you.

    2. Mark 85

      Re: The US hates illegal aliens

      I somehow think that these fossils weren't what certain US politicians had in mind when they were raging (both sides of the argument) about illegal immigration. The Roswell beings, however, should have been allowed to stay.

      1. JEDIDIAH
        Linux

        Re: The US hates illegal aliens

        The Roswell Greys probably had valuable job skills that could not be found in the domestic labor pool.

    3. Fungus Bob
      Trollface

      Re: The Roswell crew from 1947 must have had visas

      Didn't need visas - they were Rocket Scientists.

  7. herman Silver badge

    Dinos

    For a moment there, I thought the US is going to round up Oracle and Microsoft and repatriate them to Gitmo or Guam...

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