The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurusbataar was looted from Mongolia's Gobi Desert and brought to the United States illegally, the U.S. Attorney's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a joint statement Monday.
The "nearly complete" skeleton of a Tyrannosaurusbataar -- also known as a Tarbousaurus bataar -- was turned over to representatives of the government of Mongolia by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. attorney's office in a New York City repatriation ceremony.
T. bataar, as it is known, was a Tyrannosaurus rex cousin that lived some seventy million years ago, in what is now the Gobi Desert of southern Mongolia.