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The US has returned three fossil remains of three different species that are 250 million years old to Morocco, during the US-Morocco Law Enforcement Seminar for Countering the Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property on Thursday.
The fossils include a Mosasaurus skull, a Basilosaurid jaw, and a Cetacean whale vertebra.
Minister of Culture Mohammed Mehdi Bensaid chaired the closing ceremony of the conference in the presence of US Ambassador to Morocco Puneet Talwar, who handed over the three fossils.
According to the US embassy in Morocco, the three fossils were seized by American law enforcement agents in the US. The statement also commended the strategic partnership between the embassy and the Ministry of Culture.
The meeting featured 70 American and Moroccan law enforcement professionals and cultural property experts, sharing the same objective of strengthening efforts to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property and associated security threats.
“This seminar is an important milestone in our partnership as it lays out areas for collaboration between cultural institutions and law enforcement to protect Morocco’s cultural patrimony from looters and traffickers,” the US ambassador said.
He also renewed the US’ determination to restore cultural property that had been illegally transported to his country.
Commenting on the return of the fossils, Bensaid emphasized the importance of the remains, stressing that Morocco’s “American friends are delivering to us three precious elements of Moroccan paleontological heritage, the fossil remains of three different species, some dating back over 250 million years.”
Morocco has been home to many important historical and paleontological discoveries in recent years.
One of the high-profile discoveries was a 110,000-year-old Atlas lion fossil in Morocco’s Essaouira in December 2022.
Read Also: FBI Art Crime Team Returns Fossilized Crocodile Skull to Morocco
Morocco also received stolen fossils of different species from different countries throughout the past year, such as when an FBI Art Crime Team returned a fossilized crocodile skull in February 2022.
