Pre-Dinosaur Era Plant Specimens Brazenly Stolen

From Treehugger:

This photo, via The Telegraph, shows just how difficult it is to move one of the large, primitive cycads.

Important specimens from one of the world´s oldest and rarest species of plant were stolen last weekend, covert ops style, from a botanical garden in South Africa. The species, cycads, is so old, in fact, that their broad leaves were casting shadows even before there walked any dinosaur to appreciate the shade. For some time, cycads were abundant and could be found across the globe, but today they are so rare, one large plant can fetch as much as $10,000. The brazen theft of the rare species has botanists concerned that some endangered plants may be lost before being recognized by the scientific community.

Article continues: Pre-Dinosaur Era Plant Specimens Brazenly Stolen