Dr. James Godwin’s victory against the government in the case of a stolen Mongolian dinosaur skull was short lived.

A federal judge in Dallas recently threw out the government’s forfeiture lawsuit involving the fossil. To Godwin, a Wichita Falls anesthesiologist and fossil enthusiast, it seemed he might get to keep his prized Tyrannosaurus bataar skull, valued at about USD 225,000.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor said in his 16 March  ruling that dinosaur fossils are not considered wild animals and therefore do not fall under the Lacey Act, which prohibits the trade of protected wildlife. The government had cited that law as the authority for its forfeiture action.

But O’Connor gave government lawyers time to refile their lawsuit, and they did just that, citing a different federal statute — the National Stolen Property Act. The feds maintain that the 70 million-year-old skull that belonged to a relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex was among a horde of dinosaur fossils stolen from Mongolia years ago.

The government says a U.S. fossil dealer travelled to Mongolia to obtain multiple fossils from a supplier and then shipped them to China to avoid a U.S. Customs inspection. From there, the fossils were shipped to the United Kingdom and then into the U.S., the forfeiture lawsuit says.

Federal agents seized the Bataar skull from Godwin’s home in July 2013. It is currently being stored at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana.

Multiple Tyrannosaurus Bataar skulls were dug out of the Gobi desert and illegally smuggled out of Mongolia, federal officials say. From there, they wound up in the hands of U.S. private collectors who dished out six figures for the fossils, including a Hollywood actor, a New York developer and the North Texas anesthesiologist.

Since federal authorities began a crackdown in 2012 on the little-known black market in dinosaur bones, more than 18 specimens have been returned to Mongolia. Two men were convicted in federal court of smuggling fossils into the U.S.

Bataar fossils were first found in that part of Mongolia during a 1946 expedition, according to the forfeiture lawsuit, filed in Wichita Falls. (Dallas Morning)