A replica of a coelacanth stolen from the primeval park in Sebnitz in the district of Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains has turned up again. According to reporters, the figure, which weighs around 50 kilograms, was discovered near the park in the forest. She is undamaged. It is still unclear who stole the replica on Ascension Day or the weekend after. The fact that the figure was no longer standing on the concrete base was only discovered later by the operators of the primeval park.
Ideal value higher than material value
According to the police, the value of the figure is around 500 euros. The officials had meanwhile asked for witnesses. First the “Saxon newspaperThe park operators had also explained to the newspaper that the ideal value of the approximately 70 centimeters long, silver-colored painted sculpture was higher because the founder of the primeval park had made it himself in a complex manual process.
Coelacanth as a living animal of evolution
Coelacanths belong to the group of bony fish. They were thought to be extinct by 1938. But now they keep ending up as by-catch in fishing nets off the Comoros Islands and Sulawesi (Indonesia). Relatives of the coelacanth are said to have lived more than 360 million years ago, so they are considered a type of living fossil.