FBI Art Crime Team Returns Fossilized Crocodile Skull to Morocco

The US Embassy in Morocco announced today that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s Art Crime Team has returned a fossilized crocodile skull to the Moroccan Embassy in Washington DC.

The embassy added that experts believe the artifact is originally from Morocco.

FBI’s Indianapolis-based team seized the artifact a few years ago as part of an investigation. The FBI, according to the embassy, will now return the artifact to “the country where it belongs.”

The embassy emphasized that the return of the fossilized crocodile skull to Morocco is part of the US’s commitment to preventing the smuggling of objects “with cultural or historical significance to Morocco.”

UNESCO considers that illicit trafficking of the cultural property remains a prevalent issue that requires action to stem.

“Over the last fifty years, the fight against this underground trade has intensified, and awareness of the moral damage caused by the plunder has grown,” UNESCO added.

Morocco is home to fascinating scientific findings, some of which recently made international headlines.

Some of the findings include rock engravings that date back to the Paleolithic age, which was 2.5 million years ago, at the Camel Cave in the province of Berkane.

In addition, a team of scientists from Morocco and Spanish universities have discovered a macaque fossil in the province of Jerada in the easter region of Morocco last year.

The fossils similarly date back to about 2.5 million years.

Archeologists in Morocco last year discovered a new species of Mosasaur, a marine lizard with shark-like cutting teeth, which lived about 72 to 66 million years ago.