Exhibition "The Living Past of the Earth"

About exhibition

The exhibition introduces visitors to representatives of the animal world that inhabited the territory of Astrakhan Oblast more than 300,000 years ago. In those distant times the south of Russia was home to mammoths, bison, woolly rhinoceroses, giant deer, as well as cave hyenas, lemmings and others. The paleontological collection of the museum-reserve includes a significant collection of teeth of ancient animals. The most interesting paleontological areas in Astrakhan Oblast are the Chernyarsky, Yenotaevsky and Akhtubinsky districts. The oldest geological layers in the region are found near Lake Baskunchak – Permian gypsums, Triassic sandstones, and Cretaceous deposits in the Ak-Dzhar ravine. The Triassic rocks of Mount Bolshoye Bogdo abound with fossilized ancient bivalve mollusks and spiral-coiled ammonites. Occasionally fossilized bones and impressions of labyrinthodont bones are encountered – ancient extinct animals that led a semi-aquatic lifestyle.