MARYLAND SCIENCE CENTER

A Tyrannosurus bataar skull similar to this one of a Tyrannosaurus rex at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore is being repatriated to the government of Mongolia. (Chris Gardner | AP)

The spirit of one of the most fearsome predators ever to stomp on the earth will be able to rest easier, as federal officials prepare to return its remains to its homeland.

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Wednesday announced the forfeiture of a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull that had been looted from the Mongolian desert.

According to Bharara's office, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken signed the forfeiture order Wednesday.

According to the forfeiture filing, the Tyrannosaurus bataar -- a close cousin to Tyrannosaurus rex -- was indigenous to, and has only been unearthed in part of the Gobi desert in what is now Mongolia. It lived during the Cretaceous Period, which ended an estimated 65 million years ago, it said.

The complaint says the skull is 32 inches long, is 65 percent intact and has "a battery of huge, knife-like serrated teeth."

Mongolian law, it said, has declared dinosaur fossils found within its borders to be government property since at least 1924, and exporting them without government permission is a violation of Mongolian law.

An auction house put the skull up for auction in 2007, after it was shipped to the United States in 2006 under customs documentation labeling it "fossil stone pieces," it said. At auction in New York, the forfeiture complaint said, the skull was described as being native to the "Eurasian" continent.

It sold for $230,000 to an anonymous California buyer.

Homeland Security Investigations agent examined the skull last year and determined that it had been illegally imported into the United States, it said.

After being told of the origins of the skull, the buyer consented to the forfeiture and turned it over to investigators.

Bharara said the skull adds to "a lengthy list" of dinosaur remains that have been repatriated back to Mongolia.

Since 2012, the office has sent back to Mongolia three full Tyrannosaurus bataar skeletons; a full Saurolophus angustirostris skeleton and another partial Saurolophus; six Oviraptor skeletons; four Gallimimus skeletons; a partial Ankylosaurus skeleton; a Protoceratops skeleton; a composite nest containing miscellaneous dinosaur eggs; and numerous small, unidentified prehistoric lizards and turtles, the news release said.

Tim Darragh may be reached at tdarragh@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @timdarragh. Find NJ.com on Facebook.