Whale of a dilemma at Egypt’s Customs
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One of the most exceptional fossil finds at Wadi Hitan is the only complete specimen from the species Basilosaurus Isis, a 37 million-year-old whale unearthed by a team led by Prof Philip Gingerich of the University of Michigan in the United States.
For the past two years Prof Gingerich and his team have been painstakingly reassembling the skeleton back in Michigan. It is now being returned to Egypt for a new museum, planned for the Valley of the Whales.
But according to the Egyptian media the whale skeleton is stuck at Cairo airport. Customs agents are demanding a $40,000 fee.
It is not clear how they came to that figure as prehistoric fossils have no agreed market value.
The Egyptian authorities who are importing the fossil are refusing to pay.
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