JOHANNESBURG, Nov 6: A South African scientist said on Tuesday he feared thieves who stole his van last month may have thrown away a unique 250-million-year-old fossil that was inside the vehicle.

The van was stolen on Oct 4 when university researcher Ross Damiani was returning the ancient amphibian skull to the National Museum in the central city of Bloemfontein.

While Damiani was sleeping in his hotel room, thieves snatched his van from the parking lot. Two other fossils on loan from other museums were also in the van.

“I think they just wanted the vehicle and it was unfortunate that the fossils were in the back,” Damiani told Reuters.

He said he feared the thieves may have thrown the fossils away, not realising their scientific importance or their value to private collectors.

“Nowadays they are becoming a big thing on the black market. There is a trade in fossils,” said Damiani, adding a fossil egg found recently in a Johannesburg flea market was selling for 9,000 rand ($909).

The fossil, which resembles a crocodile, was found in the southern Free State province in the 1920s, but had not been thoroughly analysed for science.

—Reuters