Geology museum doesn't accept or decline South Koreans' offer to sell back to Thailand dinosaur skeletons; |it tells group 'fossil smuggling is |an offence' in the kingdom

A group of South Koreans have offered to sell six |dinosaur-fossil skeletons back to Thailand for US$60 million or about Bt2.1 billion.

The offer was made even though smuggling of the ancient skeletons out of the country is illegal. The fossils in their possession belong to the Phuwiangosaurus Sirindhornae, a dinosaur species which roamed the earth more than 130 million years ago.

The fossils were discovered in Thailand's Northeast.

"Four South Koreans came to meet me on August 22 saying that they were willing to sell the dinosaur fossils at a special price," Geology Museum and Fossil Research Office director Dr Varavuth Suthitorn said. His office is under the Depart-ment of Mineral Resources.

Varavuth neither declined nor accepted the offer but told his foreign visitors that, "Fossil smuggling is an offence under Thai laws".

Before the four South Koreans showed up at Varavuth's office this year, a man named "Shin Jea-hoon" and his lawyer had called up the Thai embassy in Seoul on March 20, 2006 with a much similar offer. Shin said he was willing to sell nearly 1,000 dinosaur fossils to the Thai government for $60 million.

Shin claimed he had imported the bone pieces in two lots, first in late 2002 and the second in early 2003, without knowing that they were ancient skeletons.

"He said he was at first convinced those parts belonged to elephants or cattle," a high-ranking official at the East Asian Affairs Department revealed.

Dr Lee Young-nam - an expert from Korea Institute of Geo-Science and Mineral Resources - later certified that the dinosaur fossils in Shin's possession were real and had much scientific value.

Varavuth ran into Lee at a recent academic seminar and raised the issue with the fossil expert too. "Lee said some of the fossils belonged to a dinosaur baby," Varavuth says.

The Thai expert is now worried that the South Koreans would try to exploit Thailand's Fossil Protection Act of BE2551.

The act, which will take effect this year, offers amnesty to whoever comes forward with the fossils before August 9, 2009. The law aims to encourage persons with fossils in their possession to register the items with the Department of Mineral Resources to enable experts to examine them.