With a long swan-like neck, flipper-like arms and long predatory talons, researchers say a newly discovered dinosaur species found in Mongolia could swim like a penguin and walk on land like a duck, Radio New Zealand reports.

But when the remains were returned to scientists after circling the black market for years, the fossil did not fit into any known category of dinosaurs, and as the first dinosaur to be both bird-like and semi-aquatic it represents a “new ecological niche,” said Andrea Cau, lead author of the study reporting the discovery, as quoted by USA Today.

Voeten and the other co-authors named the species Halszkaraptor escuilliei after the late Polish paleontologist Halszka Osmolska, who was known for her work on Mongolian dinosaurs.

The animal lived in modern-day Mongolia during the Cretaceous period, about 75 million years ago at a time when, what is now the Gobi desert had rivers, lakes and wetlands. When it was illegally exported remains unclear but the fossil originated in Ukhaa Tolgod, a “dinosaur graveyard” in southern Mongolia, writes Live Science.

An investigation that followed several well-publicized smuggling cases identified more than 18 smuggled Mongolian dinosaur specimens in private collections, including one that sold for USD 1 million, and another bought at a seemingly legitimate auction by actor Nicolas Cage for USD 276,000.