Chinese police have arrested a man accused of stealing dozens of fossilized dinosaur eggs, authorities said on Monday.

The man, surnamed Wang, allegedly stole 80 of the eggs from a collector in Tiantai county of East China's Zhejiang province on the night of Jan 9 with the help of three accomplices, according to the Heilongjiang provincial police department.

Wanghad previously visited the collector twice under the pretext of wishing to make a purchase, a police statement said.

The four suspects divided the eggs between them, with Wang taking home 27 of them.

The 27 fossils were recovered by police after they arrested Wang in his hometown in Heilongjiang's Huanan county on March 4, police said.

Wang's three accomplices were also apprehended, according to the statement, which did not say what happened to the rest of the eggs.

Heilongjiang police confirmed on Monday that Wang was in police custody, but refused to confirm the status of other suspects.

China is the country with the most fossilized dinosaur egg discoveries in the world.

The city of Heyuan in Guangdong province set the world record for the largest collection of dinosaur eggs, with nearly 17,000 found in the city since 1996 when a group of children playing on a building site discovered some fossils.