Shunosaurus dinosaur egg seized in Italy

[Troodon]

Gotta love these stories.  Dinosaur egg seized by Italian customs and authenticated by the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape.  Oh it had a Certificate of authenticity and ID to a specific species Shunosaurus.

 

 

Problem is that this looks to be one of those very fake Malaysian eggs.    Check out the putty looking matrix.

Hopefully a paleontologist will soon point that out and a Superintendent will have egg in their face 

 

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgkba/italian-customs-authorities-seized-a-dinosaur-egg-hidden-in-a-package

 

 

[FF7_Yuffie]

It's a bit worrying that the superintendent of archaeology who you'd expect to be an expert thought it was real.

 

 

Article is a bit vague on why it was seized though. It mentions other eggs smuggled from China--but, with this one being a fake (I assume made in Malaysia) and sent from Malaysia, then it clearly wasn't a smuggled egg, so does that mean any Chinese eggs being transported could be seized on suspicion of being smuggled, even if not coming from China, or even if not being smuggled and instead coming from old collections or pre-export?

 

Or is it the fact the receiver renounced the packer (I assume that means when it came to paying customs fees, he refused to do so?) that it was seized? Reading this bit "the egg will be put on display" makes me think it wasnt seized for smuggling/illegal trade, since I'd guess they would return it to China if so.

Edited June 17, 2021 by FF7_Yuffie

[jpc]

1 hour ago, FF7_Yuffie said:

It's a bit worrying that the superintendent of archaeology who you'd expect to be an expert thought it was real.

 

 

Article is a bit vague on why it was seized though. It mentions other eggs smuggled from China--but, with this one being a fake (I assume made in Malaysia) and sent from Malaysia, then it clearly wasn't a smuggled egg, so does that mean any Chinese eggs being transported could be seized on suspicion of being smuggled, even if not coming from China, or even if not being smuggled and instead coming from old collections or pre-export?

 

Or is it the fact the receiver renounced the packer (I assume that means when it came to paying customs fees, he refused to do so?) that it was seized? Reading this bit "the egg will be put on display" makes me think it wasnt seized for smuggling/illegal trade, since I'd guess they would return it to China if so.

I do NOT expect the archeological official to know anything about fossil eggs.  So many people confuse archeology and paleontology.  Archies know as much about dinosaur eggs as I know about arrowheads.... zilch.  It is sad and pathetic that so many govt archeologist positions are also by default responsible for paleo.  And you get cases like this one.... and worse.