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The German police learned last Monday (16) of 60 fossils from Chapada do Araripe, in Cariri (CE), which would be sold illegally online for more than 100,000 euros. The pieces would be marketed by the German company Fossils Worldwide, on a website hosted in the Netherlands.
The seizure was requested by the MPF (Federal Public Ministry), after a complaint from two biologists who had access to the auction site and verified that there were Brazilian fossils for sale. The announcement itself said that the material came from Brazil.
The material includes a pterosaur, a stingray, insects, and arachnids. The person responsible for marketing the material was also identified. According to the Federal Constitution of Brazil, mineral resources, including fossils, are assets of the Union.
“As soon as we found out about the auction, we started a criminal investigation procedure to investigate the case and called the German authorities. The sites were taken off the air, but before that, we managed to preserve all the evidence and formalized the request for the repatriation of the material, which has great scientific value for Brazil ”, explained the prosecutor responsible for the case, Rafael Rayol.
At the request of the MPF, an analysis was carried out to verify the origin of the fossils, by the Regional University of Cariri. Experts attested that the fossils were nationals of animals that lived in the region more than 120 million years ago.
“When observing the limestone plates, the identification of the Cariri stone is clear, varying from greyish to cream and yellowish tones, with small fragments of algae and sometimes traces of manganese, configuring the typical characteristic of this rock from the Crato Formation, widely explored in the municipalities of Santana do Cariri and Nova Olinda, both in the State of Ceará ”, the institution’s document details.
After this confirmation and the identification of the person responsible for the auction, the prosecutor asked the Kariserslautern Public Prosecutor’s Office in Germany for the preventive seizure of the material.
