In Atyrau, an updated exposition of a paleontological museum unique to Kazakhstan has opened to the attention of all comers.
Hundreds of exhibits represent the fossils of ancient animals that lived on the territory of Western Kazakhstan at a time when the current land was covered by a huge sea. Here are the teeth of prehistoric sharks, fossilized remains and bones of animals, huge megalodons, plesiosaurs and mollusks. The remains of mammoths, woolly rhinos, primitive tours and deer were found in the region. The age of some of them exceeds 150 million years. The museum opened more than twenty years ago, thanks to the efforts of local enthusiast Yuri PASTUKHOV.
The updated exposition is now available for residents, especially for schoolchildren.
Many of the fossils found are still not amenable to precise scientific determination and need research.
The only paleontological museum of the Mesozoic era in Kazakhstan is located in Atyrau. The museum is small, the exposition occupies two rooms, but the uniqueness of the exhibits collected here is of interest to many museums in the world. All exhibits of the museum are original, most of them are in Atyrau region.
Another feature of the museum is that its exposition was collected by the only local historian and paleontologist Yuri Pasukhov. For 20 years, Yuri Pastukhov and his students went on expeditions to the Atyrau region and collected unique evidence of the past tense on the planet, so a future museum exposition was created. The opening of the museum was almost a personal initiative and for many years served as a small private museum. Last year, the Museum of Local Lore was maintained and updated. The Paleontological Museum has become a unit that can expand the exhibition and receive funding for new expeditions. With the help of a sponsor, the premises were repaired and the entire museum exposition was restored.
The entire exhibition of the museum is called "Welcome to the Boreal Sea", where visitors can go from stand to stand to see the stages of the existence and development of our planet. In addition, new sections appeared in the museum - “The Formation of Paleontology as a Science” and “Extinct Mammals” - thanks to which evolution can be traced back hundreds of millions of years. In total, the museum has hundreds of exhibits: prehistoric shark teeth, fossilized megalodons, plesiosaurs and snails. In addition, the bones of reptiles, mammals, the first wild bulls and deer that lived 100-150 million years ago.
About 70% of the Cretaceous period remains in western Kazakhstan. Many exhibits are so unique that they do not belong to a specific scientific definition and require research. History has shown that the discoveries of Yuri Pastukhov were not accidental. Atyrau region was perhaps the best place to visit paleontologists. Hundreds of millions of years ago, this region was home to huge seas and waves, and hundreds of thousands of years ago, fish, marine animals and large sharks lived in the Atyrau region.
The whole territory of Western Kazakhstan is located in the center of a large sea, stretching from the Moscow Region to Western Siberia. At the same time, oil was discovered in Kazakhstan thanks to the reservoir that existed before this story. Ten million years later, the remains of algae, fish and shellfish turned black. Unique chalk gorges of the Caspian Sea, distinguished by the Aktolagai Gorge, occupy a special place in world science. Such unique paleontological monuments still require further study. It seemed that the deepest scientific research in Aktolagay could be a boom, and this could change our current understanding of what our Earth was like millions of years ago. The Paleontological Museum in Atyrau is of great scientific importance and can be the starting point for the development of paleontological science in Kazakhstan. For all those who visit the Atyrau Paleontological Museum, it is always open. Experienced staff will help you understand the mysterious world of prehistoric nature.
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