A parcel containing the remains of 400 million-year-old ancient creatures was intended to be transported from Ukraine to Taiwan, Kyiv customs officers discovered them on Wednesday, UNN reports.
Details
"Kyiv customs officers prevented an attempt to illegally send ancient fossils (fossils) 400 million years old from Ukraine to Taiwan in an international mail shipment," the statement reads.
As noted, during the customs inspection of an international mail shipment from Ternopil, customs officers found stones with signs of antiquity with bizarre outlines and suggested that they might be of ancient origin.
"The fossils were sent to the National Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for examination," the agency said.
According to experts, the fossils found by customs officers are tiles of red sandstone of the Early Devonian (geological period of the Paleozoic era) with shells of Protopteraspis "fish" of two species, as well as weakly cemented limestone with a whole crab "Daira speciose" and a shell of the red mollusk Halyotis sp.
"Museum experts also found that these are original fossils found in Podillia, in the Dniester River basin. The geological age of three of them (the Dniester series) is about 400 million years; and the other two, a crab and a mollusk, are 10-20 million years old," the customs office said.
The discovered fossils are reportedly "exclusive from a paleontologist's point of view". They have cultural and scientific value as a geological heritage. At the same time, experts recommend that the samples be included in the State Register of National Cultural Heritage, as well as in the Museum Fund of Ukraine.
According to the current legislation of Ukraine, the export of cultural property abroad requires permits. The customs officers were not provided with such documents.
The Kyiv Customs drew up a report on violation of customs regulations under Article 473 of the Customs Code of Ukraine against the citizen who sent exclusive paleontological samples abroad. The paleontological valuables were seized until the court decision.
З України хотіли вивезти унікальну палеонтологічну знахідку юрського періоду20.12.23, 10:48