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Petrified animals. The most unusual of the oldest living creatures. Fossilized excrement and vomit of ancient reptiles

Most of us think that when the Earth was formed, life appeared in the seas. This is partly true, but no one knows exactly how the first life appeared. And having appeared, life immediately began to influence the surface of the planet. Without the plants that crush rocks into sediment, for example, there would not be enough materials to form tectonic plates and therefore continents. Without plants, the Earth could become just a water world.

Believe it or not, more complex life may even change the structure of global ice ages, making them less severe, with the help of " ". The discontinuous pattern of freezing and thawing goes back billions of years to a time when Earth did not have the complex web of life that exists today. Then the glaciers stretched from the poles to the equator, disrupting the entire planetary foundation.

Since then, as more and more life has filled the surface and seas, the glacial Earth has formed huge glaciers at both poles, stretching out several fingers in terms of latitudes that never reach the equator.

542 million years ago something mysterious happened on Earth

Experts call the sudden increase in the diversity and richness of Earth's fossil record, which began 542 million years ago, the "Cambrian explosion." He puzzled Charles Darwin. Why did all the ancestors of modern animals appear literally overnight, in a geological sense?

One expert opinion is that there was life before the Cambrian period, but it didn't have any hard parts. The scientists analyzed soft-bodied Precambrian fossils, some of which have no connection whatsoever with any form of modern life today, as well as young Cambrian soft-bodied fossils from Canada. It turned out that at least 50 million years before the Cambrian “explosion,” multicellular life developed. Scientists don't understand where the hard parts came from, but perhaps a genetic mutation caused a cascading effect that led to the sudden development of shells and skeletons. However, not everyone agrees with this theory. There is still no exact answer to the question of what happened to life on Earth 542 million years ago.

The first land plants may have caused a mass extinction

During the Devonian period, which was 150 million years after the Cambrian, it was good to be born a fish at the top of the food chain. Apart from a few stray plants and animals exploring the land, all life lived in the sea. After tens of millions of years, everyone came out of the sea onto land, where tall forests of ferns, mosses and mushrooms appeared.

And then the sea creatures began to die. At least 70% of all invertebrates in the sea have gradually disappeared. The Devonian extinction was one of the ten largest mass extinctions in Earth's history.

Many experts believe that land plants were to blame. They say the first forests created soil that broke rocks into minerals that eventually flowed into the ocean, causing algae blooms. This algae consumed all the oxygen, and the sea creatures suffocated. Even worse, the algae was then eaten by other organisms and became hydrogen sulfide. It turned sea waters into acid. The plants couldn't escape either. They sucked enough carbon dioxide out of the air to cause an ice age, which wiped out many of them too.

Fortunately, there are a few species left that have survived even these hellish conditions, whether at sea or on land.

Ancient life knew how to adapt

There has never been a complete extinction of species, even when the planet was hit by a massive asteroid. For example, even in the youth of the Earth, the oxygen produced was poisonous to many early life forms. While many oxygen haters died, others adapted and became more sophisticated. Extinctions have happened from time to time, but Jurassic Park's Ian Malcolm was right when he said that life will always find a way to keep going.

According to the fossil record, survival and extinction had a greater influence on demography. If a large group of species were scattered around the world, there was a chance that at least one or two individuals would survive extinction. Other conditions include environmental conditions and genetic factors that make species vulnerable or allow adaptation.

Horseshoe crabs turned out to be the best - they survived four major mass extinctions and countless smaller ones.

Finding Martian fossils changes our understanding of Earth

What is a fossil? At first glance, this is all that has been dug out of the ground, but this approach can be misleading when we are trying to understand ancient life.

At the moment, attention is focused on Mars, since besides Earth, this planet offers the friendliest planetary climate for life. Once upon a time there were even rivers and lakes. If life existed in these ancient waters, fossils may have remained. This raises an obvious question. If we're trying to understand what life was like on Earth 542 million years ago, how do we define 4 billion-year-old Martian remains?

Astrobiologists are working on this, not disdaining the help of paleontologists. Understanding what ancient fossils on Mars might be like allows scientists to sharpen their understanding of what isn't fossils on Earth.

Fossil sites

Most of the fossils we saw probably formed in water. Water is good for creating fossils. The land is not very good. In shallow waters close to the beach, for example, lots of sediment from rivers and streams quickly buries shellfish and other sea creatures, preserving them.

Tropical forest rain can be as rich and rich as shallow sea shelf, but it will not form many fossils. Plants and animals that die in it will quickly decompose due to the moisture. In addition, predators will quickly carry away the corpses, and the rest will be destroyed by wind and rain.

Standing water in low-lying areas such as swamps and lagoons is also suitable because it does not contain much oxygen and does not support many decomposing organisms. In addition, there is also a shift in fossils toward bodies with hard parts, as well as groups of animals and plants that are large, long-lived, and dispersed over a wide geographic area. Time also affects. Geological processes like mountain building and plate subduction tend to wear away fossils, which is why it's so difficult to find the oldest ones.

Fossils rarely resemble living things

The physical processes after a plant or animal dies are complex and messy. There is a separate field of science that studies these processes. While it certainly helps in many ways, it does not provide a perfect map of the original living being. Some solid fossils, such as insects and carnivorous plants, trapped in amber are the exception, but they are all relatively young. For the most part, only a small part of the organism is preserved. And as far as we know, fossilization only occurs in the hard, tough parts of a plant or animal, so experts must reconstruct animals from a couple of teeth and, if they're lucky, a few bones.

Paleoartists use fossil evidence to reconstruct ancient living things, but they fill in the gaps with details taken from modern descendants of a plant or animal. Often new discoveries confirm reconstructions. Sometimes - more often in the case of feathered dinosaurs - the first reconstructions turn out to be inaccurate.

Not all fossils are petrified

Scientists love to stick to words. A paleontologist describing a 200-million-year-old tree that has turned to stone might call it "mineralized" or "replaced" rather than petrified.

Mineralization occurs because there are empty cavities in the wood. Let's say a tree falls into a lake that contains a lot of dissolved minerals from a nearby volcano that released its ash stuff into the water. These minerals, especially silicates, enter the wood and fill the pores and other cavities, so parts of the wood become encased in the stone and are preserved.

The tree can also be replaced. This is a longer process. Suppose our tree did not fall into the lake when it fell, but went into the soil. Groundwater began to seep in and after a certain geological time, minerals replaced the entire tree, all woody parts, molecule by molecule. All "petrified" trees are good, but paleontologists extract more information from a tree that has undergone molecular replacement than from a mineralized tree.

It turns out that the saber-toothed “tiger” was not the only ancient creature with long teeth. Sabretooths are an example of convergent evolution, where unrelated species independently evolve the same useful function. Sabretooths were useful for all types of predators that had to hunt animals larger than themselves.

There are many other examples of convergent evolution. Modern giraffes, for example, are not related to dinosaurs, but have the same long necks as brachiosaurs and other dinosaurs. The long-extinct mammal Castorocauda looked and behaved similar to the modern beaver, although the two species are unrelated.

One of the strangest cases of convergent evolution involves us. Koalas have fingerprints that look just like ours, even though they are marsupials (they have pouches on their bellies) and we are placentals (our unborn young feed through the placenta). Scientists believe koalas may have developed tiny curls on their toes to make it easier for them to climb trees, just as we did in the past.

Ancient Animals Live and Thrive Today

It often happens that some strange species of animal or plant, which everyone already thought had disappeared, turns out to be alive and well. We think of them as relics, not suspecting that there are still many ancient organisms on Earth that have undergone virtually no changes.

As we have already noted, horseshoe crabs have survived many mass extinctions. But they are not the only ones. The same cyanobacteria that once killed off much life on Earth by starving them of oxygen billions of years ago are also alive and well. also show themselves perfectly as ancient life. For example, rove beetles date back to the Triassic period (more than 200 million years ago). Today, this family of beetles probably contains the largest number of living organisms in the world. And their ancestors were probably familiar with Triassic water bugs, like those that sometimes appear in ponds and scare people.

Most amazingly, some species of sulfur-producing anaerobic bacteria, which were among the first living organisms on Earth, live with us today. Moreover, these are one of those microbes that inhabit our digestive tract. Fortunately for us, the Earth's atmosphere has been improving significantly over the years. Or most of them, at least.

Ecology

When we find common fossils of ancient shells on the beach, they are very easy to recognize. However, there are fossils of very ancient living creatures that are difficult to recognize even for specialists.

The problem also lies in the fact that many of them are poorly preserved or have come to us in incomplete form. It's not surprising that until better specimens are found, fossils of long-extinct creatures will often be mistaken for completely different species. We invite you to learn about these mysterious fossils, which have been mistaken for mysterious things at various times.

1) Ammonites

Ammonites are common in fossils, but have been misidentified for a long time. Even in Ancient Greece they believed that these were ram horns. They were named after the Egyptian god Amon, who wore such horns. In ancient China they were called horn-stones for the same reason. In Nepal, they were considered as holy relics left by the god Vishnu. The Vikings believed that ammonites were the sacred offspring of the serpent Jormungandr, who turned into stone.

In the Middle Ages in Europe they were called snake stones, were believed to be the fossilized bodies of coiled snakes that were turned into stones by Christian saints. Some enterprising traders even carved snake heads from ammonite fossils and sold them as souvenirs.

Today we know that these are just fossilized shells of squid-like creatures that lived on our planet 400 million years ago and lived until the death of the dinosaurs. More complex fossils include more than just shells. Fossil shells can be found along with protruding tentacles and misshapen heads that resemble modern nautilus mollusks.

2) Fish teeth

The fossilized remains of fish teeth have been interpreted in different ways. Some ancient fish had hard, flat molars that allowed them to crush mollusk shells. In Greece and later in Europe, these fossils were considered magical jewelry and were often called toad stones, since people believed that large toads wore them as decorations on their heads. The teeth were used to make talismans; it was believed that they could cure epilepsy and poisoning.

In Japan, fossils of flat shark teeth have been identified as claws shed by the terrible Tengu monsters. In Europe, shark teeth were seen as hardened tongues of the devil.

It was only in the 17th century that the Danish anatomist Niels Stensen seriously studied these fossils and concluded that most of the "devil's tongues" found were just shark teeth. He also realized that fossils did not appear spontaneously in the earth and that they were located next to the remains of ancient animals long dead.

3) Trees

Lepidodendron- an ancient tree-like plant with bark resembling a pine cone, which has long been extinct. The leaves of this plant looked like grass stems and lepidodendron was still closer to herbs than to modern trees. Most of the European coal deposits are the remains of these ancient plants. Lepidodendron fossils are very interesting. Long tree trunks were often preserved entirely in fossils; such a trunk could reach 30 meters in height and about a meter in width.

At fairgrounds in the 19th century, these fossils were often displayed as the bodies of scaly snakes and dragons. People could pay a small fee to admire the ancient "monsters" and listen to fictional tales of their dramatic fate. Various Christian saints could also appear in the stories. More complete fossils might include not only trunks, but also branches, roots, leaves and cones, which provided evidence that these were once trees and not mysterious fairy-tale creatures.

4) Foraminifera

On the Pacific coast in southern Japan you can sometimes find unusual grains of sand. Many of them are shaped like tiny stars, less than 1 millimeter in size. Local legends say that these are the remains of unfortunate children from the divine union of two stars. These “children” died because they fell to Earth or were killed by sea monsters living off the coast of the Japanese island of Okinawa. Their fragile skeletons wash up on the shore, and this is all that remains of the poor creatures.

In fact, these are the remains of various forms of earthly life, creatures similar to amoebas, which are called foraminifera. These creatures and their modern descendants are single-celled creatures that build themselves a protective shell. When they die, their needle-like shells remain, and if you look through a microscope, you can see the tiny chambers and structures in great detail.

5) Protoceratops

Dinosaurs called protoceratops were relatives of more famous Triceratops. They walked on 4 legs and were comparable in size to a large dog, although they were somewhat heavier. They definitely had a large skull with a bird's beak, in the back of which there was a bony outgrowth with holes.

Protoceratops lived in large herds, so they left behind a large number of fossils. For many people who were not yet familiar with dinosaurs, the found skulls seemed like the remains of fantastic and strange creatures. Because of their size, it was believed that Protoceratops were small lions. However, the distinctive feature of the skulls of these animals suggested that they were lions with curved beaks, like those of eagles. The animals' feet resembled the paws of eagles with claws rather than the paws of lions. People thought the creature was a mixture of a lion and an eagle. Apparently, legends about these creatures most likely appeared after people found fossils of Protoceratops.

6) Belemnites

Belemnites are extinct ancient animals that resemble modern squids. Unlike squids, belemnites had 10 “arms” of equal length, which were covered with tiny hooks, and, remarkably, these sea creatures had a skeleton. Belemnites lived during the age of dinosaurs and are well preserved in fossils.

The most commonly found fossilized remains of their skeletons are cylindrical objects with a tapered end without any structures such as tentacles. These fossilized skeletons are shaped like a bullet.

In Europe, they were believed to be "thunderbolts" - objects that fell to earth from the heavens, producing the sound of thunder when they struck the surface of the earth. They were associated with various thunder gods. Many people kept them in different parts of their homes in order to divert lightning. Others believed that belemnites were associated with elves, not gods. They believed that these were the fingers of elves. People used them in various superstitious medicinal practices, such as to treat snake bites or relieve headaches. They applied the fossils to the affected area of the body and cast various spells.

7) Ankisaurs

Ankysaurs were one of the groups of early dinosaurs. These herbivores had long necks and tails and were relatives of the more familiar ones brontosaurus And diplodocus. Ankysaurs were smaller in size than their later ancestors and grew no more than 2 meters in length. They evolved from bipedal ancestors and did not stand entirely on 4 legs, although their front legs were well adapted for locomotion. They reared up on their hind legs when needed and used their front paws to grasp things.

Ankysaurs have attracted particular interest because they were initially misidentified. They were confused with the creature that would seem to be the least like a dinosaur: a human. Strangely, the long neck and tail, lizard-like body, reptile-like skull, and other features were simply ignored! Just the fact that the creature was the size of a man helped make everyone believe that these were the remains of our ancestor.

After other fossils of these creatures were found over the course of several decades, the name "dinosaur" was coined and people recognized that these fossils were not of humans at all, but of reptiles. The fact that you can confuse a lizard with a person shows how people can be mistaken.

8) Mastodons and mammoths

Just a few thousand years ago, mastodons and mammoths roamed the icy land. They looked like elephants, but had warm fur and tusks several meters long. Mass species extinction, climate change and hunting have led to their extinction. Like modern elephants, these animals had very strong muscles in their trunks that were stronger than other muscles in their body.

The trunk of mammoths and mastodons required that there be a hole in the middle of the animal's skull. Modern elephants have the same feature. People who live in areas where elephants live have seen animal skulls more than once, so they know this feature. Others who found skulls of ancient relatives of elephants with giant holes in the middle imagined this creature as a huge humanoid giant with one eye socket. The legend of the Cyclops seems to have its roots in a time when people found skulls of ancient animals outside of Africa.

9) Sea urchins

Sea urchins are spiny, round-shaped creatures whose fossils are commonly found off the coast. They belong to a group of animals called echinoderms. These creatures have lived on our planet for hundreds of millions of years, and their distant ancestors left behind a lot of fossils. Although ancient sea urchins have many similarities with modern species, their fossils have long been mistaken for completely different creatures.

In England, they were believed to be supernatural crowns, loaves of sacred bread, or magical snake eggs. In Denmark, they were believed to be “thunderstorm” stones: it was believed that they began to release moisture before storms, which helped people predict inclement weather.

The five lines found on many sea urchin fossils were considered a good omen and were kept as a good luck charm in India. The magical powers associated with sea urchins reflected how each culture interpreted them. They were believed to be able to cure snake bites, help prepare bread, protect against storms, and bring good luck.

10) Hominids

Many of man's relatives, the apes, left behind fossils. These fossils were often misinterpreted before people began to think about human evolution. Fossils that were found in Europe and America sometimes “proved” the existence of various mythical characters mentioned in the same Bible, such as giants or demons. Others said that these were the ancestors of apes, although modern apes have very different features.

Some are sure that these skeletons belong to aliens, and not fairy-tale monsters. Apparently, fossils found in Asia inspired people to create legends about the Yeti. Some believe that some hominids could have coexisted with humans, so the creators of the legends were inspired not by their fossils, but by these living creatures themselves.

1) Ammonites

Ammonites are common in fossils, but have been misidentified for a long time. Even in Ancient Greece they believed that these were ram horns. They were named after the Egyptian god Amon, who wore such horns. In ancient China they were called horn stones for the same reason. In Nepal, they were considered as holy relics left by the god Vishnu. The Vikings believed that ammonites were the sacred offspring of the serpent Jormungandr, who turned into stone.

In the Middle Ages in Europe they were called snake stones, they were believed to be the fossilized bodies of coiled snakes that Christian saints turned into stones. Some enterprising traders even carved snake heads from ammonite fossils and sold them as souvenirs.

2) Fish teeth

The fossilized remains of fish teeth have been interpreted in different ways. Some ancient fish had hard, flat molars that allowed them to crush mollusk shells. In Greece and later in Europe, these fossils were considered magical jewelry and were often called toad stones because people believed that large toads wore them as jewelry on their heads. The teeth were used to make talismans; it was believed that they could cure epilepsy and poisoning.

In Japan, fossils of flat shark teeth have been identified as claws shed by the terrible Tengu monsters. In Europe, shark teeth were seen as hardened tongues of the devil.

It was only in the 17th century that the Danish anatomist Niels Stensen seriously studied these fossils and concluded that most of the “devil's tongues” found were just shark teeth. He also realized that fossils did not appear spontaneously in the earth and that they were located next to the remains of ancient animals long dead.

3) Trees

Lepidodendron is an ancient tree-like plant with pine-cone-like bark that is long extinct. The leaves of this plant looked like grass stems and lepidodendron was still closer to herbs than to modern trees. Most of the European coal deposits are the remains of these ancient plants. Lepidodendron fossils are very interesting. Long tree trunks were often preserved entirely in fossils; such a trunk could reach 30 meters in height and about a meter in width.

4) Foraminifera

In fact, these are the remains of various forms of earthly life, creatures similar to amoebas, which are called foraminifera. These creatures and their modern descendants are single-celled creatures that build themselves a protective shell. When they die, their needle-like shells remain, and if you look through a microscope, you can see the tiny chambers and structures in great detail.

5) Protoceratops

Dinosaurs called Protoceratops were relatives of the more famous Triceratops. They walked on 4 legs and were comparable in size to a large dog, although they were somewhat heavier. They definitely had a large skull with a bird's beak, in the back of which there was a bony outgrowth with holes.

6) Belemnites

Belemnites are extinct ancient animals that resemble modern squids. Unlike squids, belemnites had 10 “arms” of equal length, which were covered with tiny hooks, and, remarkably, these sea inhabitants had a skeleton. Belemnites lived during the age of dinosaurs and are well preserved in fossils.

The most commonly found fossilized remains of their skeletons are cylindrical objects with a tapered end without any structures such as tentacles. These fossilized skeletons are shaped like a bullet.

7) Ankisaurs

Ankysaurs were one of the groups of early dinosaurs. These herbivores had long necks and tails and were relatives of the more familiar brontosaurus and diplodocus. Ankysaurs were smaller in size than their later ancestors and grew no more than 2 meters in length. They evolved from bipedal ancestors and did not stand entirely on 4 legs, although their front legs were well adapted for locomotion. They reared up on their hind legs when needed and used their front paws to grasp things.

After other fossils of these creatures were found over the course of several decades, the name “dinosaur” was coined and people recognized that these fossils were not of humans at all, but of reptiles. The fact that you can confuse a lizard with a person shows how people can be mistaken.

8) Mastodons and mammoths

9) Sea urchins

10) Hominids

Department of Education of the Administration of the Lebedyansky Municipal District of the Lipetsk Region

Municipal budgetary educational institution

DOD SYUNG Lebedyan

research

Fossil artifacts

Penkova Margarita Yurievna, 7th grade, MBOU DOD SYUNG Lebedyan

d/o "Young Researcher" (based on MBOUSOSH Kuiman village)

Head - Penkova Olga Anatolyevna

teacher d/o MBOU DOD SYUN Lebedyan

Lebedyan – 2014

Object of study: animal fossils.

Subject of study: places of discovery of fossils in the Lipetsk region, types of fossils.

Purpose of the study: determining the locations of animal fossils and drawing up an idea of the features of nature in prehistoric times.

Tasks:

1.Collect samples of animal fossils at designated points in the Lipetsk region.

2.Give a brief description of the places where fossils were collected in the Lipetsk region.

3. Determine the approximate species of fossils.

4. Determination of the approximate time of existence of the found fossils on a geochronological scale.

5. Compile a general description of the natural features of the Devonian period of the Paleozoic era in the Lipetsk region.

6. Suggest a route for amateur paleontologists in the Lipetsk region.

Methods:

Finding and collecting fossils in the field.

Description.

Working with geochronological scale and Internet resources.

Compiling a collection of found artifacts.

Plan

Introduction

1. Literature review.

2.Materials and methods

3. General conclusions on the study and an approximate route for amateur paleontologists in the Lipetsk region.

Conclusion

List of references and used Internet resources.

Appendix (collection of animal fossils).

Introduction.

I want to become a geologist. Not a lawyer, not an economist, not a doctor, but a geologist. I read somewhere that the oldest profession is a geologist. After all, where did human civilization begin? From the fact that man began to distinguish a stone that is suitable for making a stone ax from a stone that is unsuitable for this purpose. And these are the basics of geology. Thus, mining began in ancient times. Later, miners began to extract clay and coal. With the beginning of the era of great geographical discoveries, the study of the Earth began. At this time, the first geological thinkers appeared who tried to guess where minerals might be located. But the profession of a geologist is associated not only with the search for minerals. For example, I am most interested in paleontology. My passion for paleontology began when I read a book by the famous Russian geologist Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev, which was called “Plutonia”. Paleontology (from ancient Greek Παλαιοντολογία) is the science of organisms that existed in past geological periods and were preserved in the form of fossil remains, as well as traces of their vital activity. Ancient animals today have turned into fossils that can be found in rocks, such as limestone, which are abundant in the Lipetsk region. While making my hikes at the Amethyst geological school to interesting places in the Lipetsk region, I found a number of interesting specimens of fossilized animals; from each hike I brought back a new interesting specimen. And after studying them, I came to some conclusions about the past of the land on which I live. This work reflects my observations and conclusions.

Literature review.

Fossils are evidence of the existence of life in prehistoric times. They consist of the remains of living organisms, completely replaced by minerals - calcite, apatite, chalcedony. Fossils are usually mineralized remains or
imprints of animals and plants preserved in soil, stones,
hardened resins. Preserved tracks, such as those of an organism's feet in soft sand, clay, or mud, are also called fossils.
Fossils are formed through fossilization processes. She
is accompanied by the influence of various environmental factors during the passage of diagenesis processes - physical and chemical transformations, during the transition of sediment into rock, which includes the remains of organisms. Fossils are formed when dead plants and animals were not immediately eaten by predators or bacteria, but soon after death they were covered with silt, sand, clay, or ash, which prevented access to oxygen. During the formation of rock sediments, under the influence
mineral solutions, organic matter decomposed and was replaced by minerals - most often calcite, pyrite, opal, chalcedony. At the same time, thanks to the gradual progression of the replacement process, the external shape and structural elements of the remains were preserved. Usually only hard parts of organisms are preserved, for example, bones, teeth, chitinous shells, shells. Soft tissues decompose too quickly and do not have time to be replaced by mineral matter.
During fossilization, plants usually undergo complete destruction, leaving the so-called. imprints and cores. Also, plant tissues can be replaced by mineral compounds, most often silica, carbonate and pyrite. Such complete or partial replacement of plant trunks while maintaining the internal structure is called petrification. S. V. Obruchev identified the following groups of fossils: 1) imprints of the body or, more often, the skeleton (shell) of an animal and trunks, stems and leaves of plants on the surface of the rock; 2) Cores are casts of the internal cavity of shells, resulting from filling the void with rock after removing the soft parts. Cores without imprints are of very little significance, since the systematic position of mollusks and brachiopods is determined by the shape of the external sculpture and the structure of the lock. The nuclei are needed to determine muscle attachments and study other details of anatomy. 3) Solid parts of organisms - bones, teeth, scales, shells, skeletons of corals and sponges, shells of echinoderms, etc. - are mostly preserved not in their original form, but with partial or complete replacement of the primary substance with secondary substances - calcite, silica, sulfides , iron hydroxides, etc. In favorable conditions, chitinous and horny parts are also preserved. The most favorable rocks for preserving organic remains are marls, bituminous and clayey limestones, calcareous and glauconitic sands, and sometimes sandstones and clayey shales. Pure quartz sandstones and quartzites, especially those occurring in continuous strata, are very poor in fossils. Clean, thick-bedded, uniform limestones are also poor in fossils, but irregular masses of reef limestones and dolomites, sometimes very thick and without clear bedding, contain corals, bryozoans, calcareous algae, and other remains of reef-building animals. In sandstones, the appearance of interlayers of shaly clays, limestones, and marls increases the chances of finding fauna; lenses of carbonaceous shales and clays contain delicate imprints of leaves, and layers of sandstone contain imprints of trunks; the latter are found even in thick layers of coarse-grained sandstones. Concretions (concretions) often enclose clusters of fossils or individual specimens. Conglomerates, especially coarse ones, contain small quantities of only the strongest parts of organisms—vertebrate bones, thick shells, and trunks. Often abundant fossils are contained in thin layers or short lenses; in some cases, the remains of animals or plants accumulate in such quantities that they form entire layers of rocks. Marine sediments are richer in organic remains than continental ones. Heavily metamorphosed rocks contain organic remains only in extremely rare cases in very poor condition, because when the rock changes and recrystallizes, the skeletons disappear or merge with the mass of the rock. The surface of the Lipetsk region is an elevated undulating plain, dissected by river valleys, gullies and ravines. The flatness of its territory is due to its geological structure, the presence at the base of a rigid crystalline foundation covered with sedimentary deposits with horizontal layers. As a result of modern erosion in the Lipetsk region, deposits of the Upper Devonian and younger deposits are exposed, which are represented by limestones, marls, dolomites with layers of clays of various shades, with the inclusion of quartz grains. Fauna is present in large quantities in the rocks.

2.Materials and methods

2.1. Identification of points in the Lipetsk region for searching for fossils.

I collected my small collection of fossils in the Lipetsk region. It is located in the center of the European part of Russia, in the upper reaches of the Don, within the Central Russian Upland in the west (height up to 262 m) and the Oka-Don Plain in the east. In the north it borders with the Ryazan and Tula regions, in the west - with the Oryol region, in the south - with the Voronezh and Kursk regions, in the east - with the Tambov region. The main rivers are the Don with its tributaries Krasivaya Mecha, Sosna, Voronezh with its tributaries Matyr, Usman, Stanovaya Ryasa.
The relief is erosive. The climate is moderate continental. The west of our region - the Don River basin is distinguished by a large number of limestone outcrops, I observed this during excursions to the Dankovsky, Lebedyansky, Zadonsky and Khlevensky districts. I looked for fossilized remains of animals in limestones and dolomites, because these are the rocks that predominate in the Lipetsk region and you can often find them outcropping on the surface. In the summer, together with other geostudents, I visited the lower reaches of the river. Beautiful Mecha (Lebedyansky district), on the Don conversations (Zadonsky district), on a karst field in the vicinity of the village. Kon-Kolodez (Khlevensky district), on the rivers and streams of Lipetsk, at the Dankovsky dolomite plant (Dankovsky district), at the outcrops of Devonian limestones in the village of Kamennaya Lubna (Lebedyansky district). In rock outcrops I found the following fossils - ammonites and crinoids in the village of Kamennaya Lubna (Lebedyansky district), corals - in the village of Pokrovskoye (Terbunsky district), brachiopods - in Dankovo. It is these settlements that I would suggest visiting fossil seekers. The village of Pokrovskoye, Terbunsky district, Lipetsk region, is located in the center of the Russian Plain on the Central Russian Upland in the southwestern part of the Lipetsk region, located within the black earth strip in the forest-steppe zone. It stands on the right bank of the Olym River. Here the Sredny Korotysh stream flows into it. The city of Dankov is the administrative center of the Dankovsky district of the Lipetsk region, located 86 km northwest of Lipetsk, on the picturesque banks of the Don River, not far from the place where, presumably, the Battle of Kulikovo took place in 1380. The geological structure of the Dankovsky dolomite deposit was formed over many millions of years on the ancient Russian platform, which is a huge tectonic structure, the crystalline foundation of which is composed of rocks such as granite, crystalline schists, gneisses and other rocks of Archaean-Proterozoic age, and on top they are covered by a layer of sedimentary rocks sediments represented by limestones, dolomites, marls, clays, sandstones and other rocks. The thickness of these deposits in the area of the Dankovskoye deposit is more than 600 m. Kamennaya Lubna is a village in the Doktorovskoye rural settlement of the Lebedyansky district of the Lipetsk region. Previously the village was called Lubna. Both names are based on the Lubna River. The definition of stone is by the emergence of stone to the surface in these places.

2.2. Rules for collecting fossils.

Before setting out to search for and collect fossilized remains, it is important to think through and select the equipment for the job. Rocks such as clays, sands, some sandstones and occasionally even limestones can be broken or crushed by hand, but this is the exception rather than the strict rule. Most rocks cannot be split without special tools. In addition, it is necessary not only to split the stone, but to remove the fossil from it, which is about to crumble. A paleontologist's kit should include: a geological hammer, a chisel, a knife, a shovel, brushes, needles, and sometimes a crowbar. The geological hammer can be replaced with any other hammer that is pointed on one side and has a flat surface on the other. Chisels should also be of different sizes. A chisel can be used to break off large pieces of rock and remove rock around the fossil. For the most delicate, thorough processing, very small chisels and needles are needed - they are used to prepare the sample. A well-sharpened knife won't hurt either. Sometimes it can be used to successfully peel off rocks. A shovel or trowel will be very effective when digging through loose sand or clay rocks. Brushes are good for dissecting or extracting fossils from loose rocks. They will allow you to very carefully remove the adjacent rock without damaging the fossil. In this way, bone remains are sometimes removed. To wrap samples, you can use newsprint or thicker Kraft paper. Particularly fragile samples can be padded with cotton wool or gauze. It is also possible to pack samples in various boxes and geological fabric bags with a pulling rope. If a fossil has fallen apart, it can be glued together using PVA or Moment glue.
If only an imprint of a fossil remains in the rock, you can make a counterimprint or cast of it using plaster. Prints can be valuable because they reflect the external sculpture of shells and shells, which is not always preserved.
To describe and sketch the section you need paper and simple pencils, an eraser and a ruler. And in my opinion, nothing can convey the features of a geological section like photography, so it’s good to have a camera with you. A compass is needed to determine the location of the cut. A backpack is required for transportation. Paleontologists have many rules for studying the locations of fossil organisms and the fossils themselves. But among them there are the main ones, the failure of which greatly reduces the value of research and collections. Two of them are a description of the geological section being studied and the preparation of detailed labels. First, you need to make a general description of the location of the cut, recording its features in detail; where it is located, in what region, in what city, village, on the bank of a river or lake, find out its location relative to the cardinal points. The label is the fossil's passport. The label contains basic information about it. The label is made of thick paper. Records are made using a pencil or pen. Each of them must indicate the institution that conducts the excursion. The field identification of the residue is recorded first, then the age, indicating the layer from which the sample was taken. This is followed by the name of the excursion site and its exact address (region, region, nearby settlements, bodies of water), the date of collection, the name of the person who collected and identified the fossil. Each fossil is assigned a field number.

2.3.Description of fossil collection sites.

Above, I indicated that I was looking for my artifacts in Dankov, Kamennaya Lubna and Pokrovskoye. Externally, the limestone outcrops at these points are similar. The outcrops are outcrops of ancient limestone of Devonian age, covered with a layer of chernozem on top. The color of limestone ranges from beige to light brown. It is difficult to accurately determine the mineral composition of the rock without laboratory tests; one can make an assumption: the chemical composition of pure limestones approaches the theoretical composition of calcite (56% CaO and 44% CO2), the studied limestones are not pure, because they are not white, but have a yellow and brown tint, which means that in addition to CaCO3 they also contain impurities of iron oxides. The structure of limestone is cryptocrystalline, sometimes clastic, organogenic. Texture - homogeneous, layered, banded, porous (samples do not scratch glass). Strength can be judged by its ability to split under a hammer. To test the strength, a sample of limestone with a volume of about 200 cm3 (approximately 6x6x6 cm) was crushed into crushed stone with one or two blows of a hammer. A strong sample will split into 2-3 pieces, and a weak one will split into many small pieces. The limestones under study are durable. The systems of cracks in the limestone mass initially determine the block structure, which allows the separation of blocks - slabs (natural units), the thickness (thickness) of the slabs is from several tens of centimeters to several meters. In the thickness of limestone one can distinguish inclusions - lithomorphic, in the form of clay and sand, biomorphic, in the form of fossilized remains of shells of marine animals and corals. It is not possible to determine the total thickness of limestone deposits, but the textbook “Geography of the Lipetsk Region” says that the thickness reaches hundreds of meters. Moreover, the upper, younger layers are more widespread than the lower, previously deposited horizons; the latter lie on underlying older rocks.

2.4.Description and determination of the approximate species of the found animal fossils.

I found fossils of four species of marine animals: ammonites, corals, brachiopods, and crinoids. The ammonite fossil is located in limestone, its size is 10 * 7 cm, the shell relief pattern is clearly visible on it, and on the fracture you can see the partitions between the chambers, their diameter is small, so we can assume that the found area was closer to the end of the shell.

Ammonites (Ammonoidea) are an extinct subclass of cephalopods that existed from the Devonian to the Cretaceous. In 1789, the French zoologist Jean Bruguier gave them the Latin name "ammonitos" in honor of the ancient Egyptian solar deity Amun of Thebes, depicted with curled ram horns that resemble the shell of ammonites. In those days, only one genus of ammonites was known, but now there are about 3 thousand of them, descriptions of new species are constantly appearing. Most ammonites had an external shell consisting of several whorls, located in the same plane, touching each other or overlapping each other to varying degrees. Such shells are called monomorphic. The ammonite shell was divided into many chambers; the one closest to the mouth was the living chamber. The length of the living chamber varies from 0.5 to 2 turns. Most of the chambers were filled with gas (air chambers), and a few were filled with liquid (hydrostatic chambers). Most ammonites belong to the ecological group of nekton, that is, organisms freely floating in the water column. However, some forms were representatives of the benthic (bottom) community. By their feeding method, ammonites were predators. Ammonites preyed on other mollusks and small fish. Ammonites are the guiding fossils of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments. The simplest ammonites appeared in the Silurian period, and true ammonites reached their greatest development in the Jurassic and Cretaceous; at the end of the Cretaceous, this diverse and rich group of mollusks completely disappeared. The fossilized remains of sea lilies are sections of the stem 2.5 cm and 3.5 cm long, on which segments are clearly visible; in one specimen the intestinal cavity is visible.

Sea lilies or crinoids (Crinoidea) are bottom-dwelling animals with a predominantly sedentary lifestyle. These are animals belonging to the phylum Echinodermata, and not plants at all, as the name might suggest. Exists from the Ordovician to the present. The body consists of a stem, a calyx and brachioles - arms. The stems and arms consist of segments of various shapes; during the life of the animal they are connected by muscles; in the fossil state they often fall apart. Filters by power type. Now these are deep-water animals; previously, when there was less pressure from predators, they also lived in shallow water. They experienced maximum prosperity at the end of the Paleozoic. Most often, segments of various shapes and pieces of stems are found, much less often - calyxes. Sometimes you come across whole crinoids in limestone, but such finds are very rare. The diameter of the segments ranges from a few millimeters to 2 centimeters. The length of the stem is up to 20 meters in fossil forms. I came across brachiopod fossils in limestone very often; one of the found specimens contained 15 clearly defined shells, on which the relief was clearly visible, and a lot of fragments. On other samples there are either several prints or single copies. Shell size 0.6 - 2 cm * 0.4 - 1.5 cm.

Brachiopod shells are as integral a component of the marine fauna of the Paleozoic (they were very widespread in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods) as ammonites in the Mesozoic, and are currently represented on Earth by only 200 species. In some places, brachiopods still form huge accumulations, it’s just that now the ecological niches that brachiopods occupied in the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic are occupied by bivalves, and brachiopods are pushed to the depths and into cold waters. Brachiopods are not mollusks, although they have a bivalve shell, but an independent type of marine shelled animals (Brachiopoda). According to many paleontologists, they are related to bryozoans, although at first glance they have little in common. As a rule, brachiopods are attached to the bottom with a thick, muscular stalk. Filters by power type. Sometimes brachiopods are called brachiopods - Brachiopoda, from the Greek. brachion - shoulder and podos - leg. The shell valves of brachiopods are different; they are called ventral and dorsal. This distinguishes them from mollusks, whose shell valves, right and left, are symmetrical to each other. In brachiopods, the valves are not identical; the right and left parts of one valve are symmetrical. The size of brachiopod shells rarely exceeds 7-10 centimeters.
Coral fossils were found on limestone, size 10 cm * 6 cm. These corals are colonial, reproduced by budding, individual segments are visible, the size of which is about 1 cm.

Representatives of the coral class are already known from very ancient Silurian deposits and are found in more or less significant quantities in the sediments of all systems up to and including the Quaternary, and in some places they form significant reef-like accumulations among marine sediments. The organization of Paleozoic corals is so unique that their place in the system adopted for the classification of living corals has not yet been precisely established. The now non-existent groups of Paleozoic corals are divided into - Zoantharia rugosa, which had the shape of bowls or cones, more or less curved, sometimes reached a significant size, had numerous, well-developed star-shaped plates and a wrinkled outer shell; Zoantharia tabulata - colonies of fused columns with a few short star-shaped plates parallel to transverse partitions, from which they get their name; and tubular corals - consisted of tube-shaped cells, sometimes free-lying, sometimes intertwined, forming turf-like masses. Corals Z. rugosa are the leading form of the lower horizons of the middle section of the Devonian system.

2.5. General characteristics of the nature of the Devonian period of the Paleozoic era of the Lipetsk region.

On the stratigraphic scale, the Devonian period is the period following the Silurian and preceding the Carboniferous. It lasted about 55 million years and ended about 345 million years ago. The Devonian is divided into 3 sections (upper, middle, lower). The name of this period comes from the name "Devonshire" - a county in southwestern England, where the system of Devonian strata was first identified by scientists in 1839. The beginning of the period was characterized by the retreat of the sea and the accumulation of thick continental red-colored sediments; The climate was continental and arid. In the Early Devonian, the Caledonian folding ended, and later large transgressions occurred. Mid-Devonian - the era of immersions; increase in marine transgressions, intensification of volcanic activity; climate warming. The end of the period - a reduction in transgressions, the beginning of the Hercynian folding, sea regression. The Devonian is considered one of the most interesting stages in the evolution of life on Earth. At the beginning of this period, organisms that appeared in previous geological eras slowly and gradually continued to develop in the seas. And in the middle of the Devonian, an unprecedented flourishing of marine fauna occurred. The warm waters of the Devonian seas were abundantly populated by cephalopods, corals and brachiopods. Among the echinoderms, the most common in this period were crinoids, starfish and sea urchins. Cephalopods felt great in the Devonian seas. Corals, sea lilies, as well as bottom-attached animals - brachiopods and bryozoans - reached extraordinary development. Together they created colossal reef structures. Of particular interest to modern paleontologists are the arthropods that lived in the Devonian seas - trilobites, which lived on Earth for 300 million years and became completely extinct for unknown reasons. Unfortunately, I did not find a fossilized trilobite, but I studied its features from the literature. But still, scientists consider the Devonian to be primarily the “age of fish.” I also did not find their fossilized remains, but I believe that this is still to come, since I have just started doing this work. In the literature I found a description of a major event in the Devonian biosphere - the Devonian extinction - mass extinction species at the end of the Devonian, one of the largest extinctions of flora and fauna in Earth's history. In total, 19% of families and 50% of genera became extinct. The extinctions were accompanied by widespread oceanic anoxia, that is, a lack of oxygen, which prevented the decay of organisms and predisposed the preservation and accumulation of organic matter. Probably, it is thanks to this that we can now get acquainted with the nature of the Devonian from fossils. The Devonian crisis primarily affected marine ecosystems, and affected shallow-water, heat-loving organisms much more strongly than organisms that preferred cold water. The most important group affected by the extinction were the reef-building organisms, in addition, the following groups were greatly affected by the extinction: brachiopods, trilobites, ammonites. Among the most likely causes of extinction in the literature is the fall of meteorites. It is argued that a meteorite impact was the primary cause of the Devonian extinction, but no reliable evidence of an extraterrestrial impact has been found. Although some indirect evidence of a meteorite fall in Devonian sediments is observed (iridium anomalies and microspheres (microscopic balls of melted rock)), it is possible that the formation of these anomalies is caused by other reasons.

3. General conclusions on the study and an approximate route for amateur paleontologists in the Lipetsk region.

After analyzing my observations, findings and literature, I came to the conclusion that:

On the territory of the Lipetsk region there are a large number of limestone outcrops, especially along the river valleys - the Don and its tributaries

the age of the limestones is determined to be Devonian (according to the literature)

limestones are sedimentary organic rock - uh these are the skeletons and shells of ancient organisms that lived millions of years ago. As they settled to the bottom of the seas and oceans, they caked and became cemented.

the predominant fossils in Devonian limestones are brachiopods, crinoids, ammonites and corals

the presence of a large number of fossils of marine animals suggests that the territory of the region was the bottom of the sea some time ago

knowing that corals cannot live at great depths and in cold waters, it can be assumed that the Devonian seas were shallow and warm

the large thickness of limestone deposits indicates a high density of inhabitants of the Devonian seas

the nature of the Devonian in the Lipetsk region is absolutely different from the modern one

Amateur paleontologists who want to travel around the Lipetsk region can recommend the Don Valley. There are a huge number of objects where you can try to find fossil artifacts. I would suggest the following travel route: Dankov (dolomite plant quarry) - Lebedyan (Tyapkina Mountain - Lebedyansky Devonian) - village. Kamennaya Lubna and a quarry in the village of Znobilovka (Lebedyansky district) - Don Conversations and a safari park in the village of Kamenka (Zadonsky district) - the right bank of the Olym River in the village of Pokrovskoye (Terbunsky district). I believe there are many more interesting fossils to be found at these points (maybe even fish and trilobites), you just need a little luck and some effort and care.

Conclusion

Paleontology is the science of how life originated and developed on our planet, what and why happened on our Earth. By definition, paleontology is the science of the biological cycle: paleos - ancient, ontos - creature; the science of ancient beings. Fundamentally, paleontology is supposed to answer questions; where we come from, who we are, where we are going. The past is a window to the future. After conducting my little research, I realized that nothing is permanent in nature - everything develops, becomes more complex, and changes. It is possible that in a million years the nature of my native land will change beyond recognition and someone, like me, will try to touch the past. Man is a very inquisitive creature, which means that paleontology, like all geology, is doomed to exist for a long, long time. And of course, I will continue to search and study fossils in order to learn even more about the distant past of the region in which I live - the Lipetsk region. I would like to finish my work with a poem by Anatoly Tsepin:

You won't find any traces on our roads -
We are the first to lay them.
From noisy, tired, big cities
We run away every summer. We graze in freedom by the blue water, We walk through the taiga distance, We are not looking for reward for our labors, And you cannot lure us to Antalya.
Our stove and fireplace are replaced by a fire,
And a bed of pine needles is feather beds,
But the heart is a living piece, not a motor,
Sometimes he feels sad for no reason.
Through noisy, tired big cities, Through the faces of loved ones and home, And we retreat in our footsteps, Because there is no other way.

List of Internet resources

http://geomem.ru/mem_obj.php?id=12908&objcoord=&objokrug=%D6%E5%ED%F2%F0%E0%EB%FC%ED%FB%E9&objoblast=%CB%E8%EF%E5% F6%EA%E0%FF%20%EE%E1%EB%E0%F1%F2%FC&objregion

The features of these ancient fibers, such as their attachment to iron clumps, are also similar to those found in modern microbes that use these clumps to cling to rocks. These iron-oxidizing microbes trap iron coming out of underwater vents to use in reactions that release chemical energy. This energy is then used to convert carbon dioxide from the surrounding water into organic matter, which allows microbes to grow.

How did we know there would be fossils there?

When we found these fossil structures, we knew they would be very interesting and promising candidates to host microfossils. But we needed to demonstrate that this is what they really are, that they are biological. We evaluated all possible scenarios for the formation of tubes and filaments, including chemical gradients in iron-rich gels and metamorphic extension of rocks. None of the mechanisms matched our observations.

Then we looked at the chemical signatures in the rocks that might have been left by microorganisms. We found organic matter preserved in the graphite in a way that suggested microbial formation. We also found key minerals that are typically produced by the breakdown of biological materials in sediments, such as carbonate and apatite (which contains phosphorus). These minerals also appear in granular structures that typically form in sediments around decaying organisms and sometimes retain microfossil structures. All these independent observations provided strong evidence in favor of the biological origin of the microstructures.

And they demonstrated a strong biological presence in rocks 3,770–4,280 million years old, pushing back the date of the earliest known microfossils by 300 million years. So you understand, if we go back 300 million years into the past, there won’t even be dinosaurs there, they haven’t appeared yet.

The fact that we found these life forms in sediments at hydrothermal vents from so early in Earth's history supports the long-standing theory that life originated in this type of environment. The environment in which we found these microfossils, as well as their similarities to younger fossils and modern bacteria, suggests that their iron-based metabolism was one of the first ways in which life nurtured itself on Earth.

Also, let's not forget that this discovery shows us that life managed to take over the Earth and rapidly evolve at a time when there was liquid water on the surface of Mars. This leaves us with the exciting possibility that if conditions on the surface of Mars and Earth were similar, life must have emerged on Mars some 3,770 million years ago. Or the Earth has become an enviable exception.

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