>>So, unless I had the singular misfortune to have viewed these pieces through a hole in the space-time continuum, or unless we ascribe supernatural or divine powers to these Hippocampi facsimiles, and discounting the possibility ...<< blah blah blah

You distinctly avoid mentioning the Heisenberg Principle which suggests that what you're seeing is actually changed by the fact you're looking at it. So stop looking at it and then tell me what you see.

>>(a possibility refuted by the photographic record), <<

Horsecollar! In terms of the act of observation, What makes you think looking at a photograph is any different than looking at an HL model?

Methinks this is best continued in the Scientography forum. :-)

Of course of course,
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/im