A man has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison and fined 3,000 yuan (361 US dollars) for selling dinosaur eggs discovered in China, state media said Sunday.
Police arrested He Wenjun after they found him with 493 dinosaur eggs loaded into 28 wooden boxes in June in the central province of Hubei, the Xinhua news agency said.
He was reported to have confessed to illegally collecting the eggs from two farmers in Yuxian county, Shiyan city, and awaiting a chance to sell them at a profit.
The Qinglong Mountain area in Yunxian county is a major site for fossilized dinosaur eggs.
Rampant illegal digging and selling of the eggs has been reported in recent years.
In October, an 80-year-old dinosaur egg found in China was put up for auction in the northwestern English town of Chester. The egg was valued at 550 dollars.
It was discovered in the isolated Gobi desert, lying between China and Mongolia, where a large quantity of prehistoric artifacts have been found in recent years.
He's wife and other cohorts were also detained, the report said -- BEIJING (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
