GUANGZHOU, Aug. 6-- Police in southern Guangdong Province have seized 231 fossilized dinosaur eggs and a dinosaur skeleton at a resident's house, local authorities said.

The government of Heyuan City said police raided the house on July 29 and seized the eggs, which date back to the Cretaceous Period. The skeleton was later identified as belonging to a Psittacosaurus.

Local residents plundered a construction site where a large number of dinosaur eggs were found in June, and again on July 28 when a blasting mission revealed more eggs, prompting police action the next day to retrieve the lost fossils.

Heyuan is known as the "hometown of the dinosaur" in China, with many fossilized eggs discovered over the decades. The city's museum has set a Guinness record for having collected more than 10,000 dinosaur eggs.

Chinese laws place fossilized creatures under state ownership and ban any trade or possession of them except by specialized institutions and professionals.