Chile seizes more than 200 fossils of extinct mollusks
Chilean customs officials seized over 200 ammonite fossils smuggled from Madagascar inside a shipping container labeled as household ornaments. Authorities are currently coordinating with Madagascar to determine the origin and potential repatriation of the artifacts.
Why it matters
The incident highlights ongoing challenges in the illegal international trade of paleontological and cultural heritage items.
Listen SANTIAGO, Sept 25 - Customs officials in Chile discovered and seized more than 200 fossils of ammonites in a shipping container from Madagascar that had been declared as containing household ornaments, the customs authority of the South American country said on Friday.
Ammonites are mollusks closely related to octopuses and squids that became extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a major mass extinction that wiped out all of the non-avian dinosaurs around 66 million years ago.
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