A Fossilised Egg of a Hadrosaur (Duck-billed Dinosaur) Returned to Museum

A dinosaur egg stolen on Tuesday from Otago Museum (South Island, New Zealand) has been returned after the rare and delicate fossil was left at a local police station.  Whoever returned the egg, either the original thief or someone who was returning the stolen egg on the thief’s behalf, did not wait around for the police to interview them.

Dinosaur Egg

According to the New Zealand press association, the egg was stolen from the Otago museum in North Dunedin early on Tuesday.  It had been on display at the museum’s ground floor shop.  The hadrosaur egg was left in a supermarket shopping bag at Dunedin central police station around 8am this morning, unfortunately the police counter was unattended at this time and there are no witnesses.  However, police will be scrutinising the security cameras to see if the person dropping off the egg can be identified.

A police spokesperson also commented that the alleged thief had been caught on the museum’s security camera system too.  It seems that this brazen larcenist walked up to the egg, looked round to see if anyone was watching and simply put it in his bag and walked out.

The egg originated from Upper Cretaceous deposits in the Henan province, China, and although not the most valuable item in the museum, such fossils are rare and highly prized by collectors.

An Illustration of a Typical Late Cretaceous Lambeosaurine

A close view of the head and hatchet-like crest on the PNSO Lambeosaurus dinosaur model. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The picture shows a typical Late Cretaceous, crested, duck-billed dinosaur (lambeosaurine).  The dinosaur featured is a Lambeosaurus. A replica of which can be found in this range here: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs.

To view a scale model of Corythosaurus and other dinosaur models: Natural History Museum Dinosaur Models.

The police have returned the egg to the museum and intend to review the museum’s security camera footage as part of their ongoing investigation into this modern day Oviraptor (name means “egg thief”).