TSU expedition found bones of ancient turtles and lizards in taiga

TOMSK, Sep 12 – RIA Tomsk. Expedition in which scientists of Tomsk State University (TSU) participated, found remains of "tiny" dinosaurs, river turtles, primitive mammals and ancient relatives of lizards in the remote  Siberian taiga. The TSU paleontologist Stepan Ivantsov told about the one who lived in Siberia 100 million years ago and what is known about these animals.

Neither by plane, nor by car

At the time of dinosaurs neither the Krasnoyarsk taiga, nor the Krasnoyarsk Krai, nor the modern river Bolshoy Kemchug, of course, existed. And now there is steep ravine on the river coast where the scientists found a set of the remains of ancient animals, and a dense taiga because of which it is impossible to reach it by the car (there are no roads), by air (there is no platform where the helicopter could land).

"There is only one option – kayaks. This time the place of works is points under the name "BK-4" – we have reached record-breaking quickly, in three days", – Ivantsov told.

Total length of the route of alloy is about 200 kilometers, the place, which is interesting for the scientists, is approximately in the middle. It is the ravine (abrupt high site of the coast) about one kilometer long. Paleontologists managed to survey only a few meters of break because it was necessary to work very carefully.

"Burial conditions are very interesting: the bone-bearing lens is almost at the edge of water and before we arrived to the place, we were afraid that it will be flooded. The second interesting condition is the lens is extremely changeable on the level of concentration of the remaining balance: constantly it was necessary to watch places with the greatest number of the remaining balance", – the scientist specified.

According to the paleontologists, refugium formed somewhere in Siberia – the place in which some types of the Jurassic Period (ended about 145 million years ago) remained also in cretaceous – that is, existed on several million years longer, than all other in the planet.

One more similar territory was located, according to the scientists, in the territory of modern Japan: finds of paleontologists indicate that inhabitants of the Japanese and Siberian refugium were very similar.

At the same time ancient animals lived not in that place where the scientists found their bones. Bodies (or separate bones) were brought by the huge ancient river. Millions of years the remains of fossils were buried by the water stream which created a bone-bearing layer.

Dinosaurs

Ivantsov tells: the remains only of small predators came across. According to them, dinosaurs were no more than 1,5 meters in length together with a tail.

"So far it is unclear what it is connected with. Perhaps, there was some kind of "kindergarten" – the territory where process of reproduction of predators and the first stages of life of cubs took place. On other hypothesis, teeth belong to "a small species", – the scientist added.

But participants of the expedition managed to find the remains of herbivorous dinosaurs, presumably, not opened earlier species.

Ivantsov explained that in last years thanks to finds on river banks of Kia the Tomsk paleontologists have already opened one species of dinosaurs – herbivorous zauropod from family titanosaurs. Having begun work on article about the opening, the scientists found out that they deal with the remains not of one, but two species of dinosaurs.

It was succeeded to find a new species on distinctions in teeth, but prior to the expedition of this year the version about the second type of zauropod was only a hypothesis. It will manage to be confirmed or disproved thanks to the new found remains belonging to animals of different age: from cubs to, perhaps, "old men".

"Teeth of earlier opened titanozavrid has a spoon form with the surface of deleting at top. And other taxon has a straighter crown and they are also slightly pointed. Possibly, the structure of teeth reflects adaptation to a diet: they worked as garden scissors – the animal broke plant material and swallowed it, without chewing", – Ivantsov explained.

In his opinion, two species of herbivorous dinosaurs could get on because they had different "diet": one could eat vegetation from tops of trees, and others – a pasture. However to draw conclusions on how unknown species of ancient pangolins looked earlier is impossible, until elements of their skeleton aren't revealed.

"Neighbors" of dinosaurs

Besides dinosaurs the paleontologists found also their "neighbors" – other residents of prehistoric Siberia. For example, they managed to collect material on turtles who lived in the ancient river.

"The remains of the turtles were met earlier, but material was very fragmentary. The Siberian turtles are now considered to be the same species that earlier were found in Kyrgyzstan. Perhaps, new finds will give us the chance to describe a new taxon", – Ivantsov told.

Also the scientists were succeeded to find a fragment of a jaw of an ancient lizard – "relative" of modern monitor lizards who were settled worldwide and live even in Australia. Before the remaining balance of such reptile was found only once on Bolshoy Kemchug and therefore the type is studied not so well.

The scientists hope that new finds will allow to consider the Siberian lizards to be one of already known species of ancient reptiles or to allocate a new species.

"We always try to track fauna of mammals. It is a very big rarity: there are not a lot of places  in the world where the remains of mammals of the Mesozoic Era could be met. And the finds did not disappoint us – we found three-four teeth a day, about 40 teeth and fragments of jaws were brought together", – Ivantsov added.

The paleontologist specified that a part of the found teeth and bones is, most likely, the remains of amfilitsid – the primitive mammals, specific for the Jurassic Period, who have no modern descendants. However, scientists don't exclude an opportunity that also more "advanced" animals lived in Siberia.

Amfilestida are still too similar on reptiles – perhaps, they even laid eggs, as well as their reptiliyny ancestors.

"The proximity to reptiles is expressed, for example, in teeth. They stand out a gum for only 1,5-2 millimeters. Tooth has several sharp tops and big roots. Such teeth of an amfilestida could not chew, but bite off. Most likely, they were insectivorous", – the interlocutor of the agency explains.

According to Ivantsov to draw more concrete conclusions, the scientists need to continue work and to investigate finds in vitro.