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Turgai fauna in Kazakhstan.

Tours in nature of Kazakhstan.

"Oh giant lizards, not without a trace
You are the brainchild of the underwater darkness -
 Along the shoals, glittering with copper skin,
Dragged bulky tails!
The decayed seed hidden in the shell
Monstrous, mysterious eggs, -
Your corpses are embalmed
Under the greasy mud of the royal tombs"

Mikhail Zenkevich. "Lizards". 1909.

 

Rounds 2024 in Kazakhstan

In the Turgai Valley, the so-called Turgai or Indricotherium fauna was first discovered - a complex of extinct animals that inhabited the temperate zone in the Middle Oligocene Indricotherium fauna, or Turgai fauna, is a faunistic complex of extinct mammals and other animals that inhabited the temperate zone of Eurasia in the Middle Oligocene (from the Balkan Peninsula to China).
Discovered in 1915 in Western Kazakhstan by the paleontologist Aleksei Alekseevich Borisyak. He discovered in the Turgai hollow (hence the second name is the Turgai fauna) fossilized bones of a giant representative of the rhinoceros indricotherium, typical of the indricotherium fauna, and a number of thermophilic mammals - inhabitants of forests, forest-steppes and swamps.
The equids were one of the main representatives of this fauna: indricotheria, running (hyracodonts, such as the Turgai Eggisodon) and marsh (aminodonts) rhinos, as well as tapyroids and chalicotheria. In addition, the indricotherium fauna included: from insectivores - primitive hedgehogs and shrews, from predators - creodonts and others, ancient lagomorphs, from rodents - squirrel-like, hamsters, beavers of the genus Palaeocastor and others, from artiodactyls - non-ruminants (anthracotherium) and also primitive ruminants - short-legged (Lophiomeryx) and long-legged (Prodremotherium) deer.
In addition to mammals, the Turgai fauna included birds, turtles, fish, insects and molluscs. In the vast area inhabited by this fauna, its composition was heterogeneous.

Authority:
I.N. Safronov. "Deserts of Mangyshlak".

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.