Dinosaur discovery in Tajikistan: Unearthing Cretaceous treasures
In northern Tajikistan, in the Sughd region, scientists have discovered a dinosaur bone dated to 85 million years ago. During excavations in the village of Kansai, they also came across the remains of smaller animals from the Cretaceous period, such as turtles, crocodiles, amphibians, fish, and lizards.
The excavations were conducted between October 20 and 28 with the participation of Russian paleontologists from Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, and Moscow, as well as two scientists from Tajikistan. Although they found the dinosaur bone, researchers have not yet determined which part of the body it comes from. "This will be clarified in the course of further research," said Umied Nabiev, one of the Tajik participants of the expedition.
The current research, led by Professor Pavel Skutschas from the State University of St. Petersburg, focused mainly on the remains of smaller animals. Scientists found numerous remnants of fish, lizards, frogs, crocodiles, and turtles. "Modern frogs have not changed much and are the same shapes and sizes as their ancestors," noted one of the research team members.
The village of Kansai has previously been the site of significant paleontological discoveries. In the 1960s, the Paleontological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, led by the famous paleontologist Anatoly Rozhdestvensky, discovered an almost completely preserved femur of a Therizinosaurus—a dinosaur from the group of coelurosaurs—as well as a series of smaller bones of these extinct animals. In the 1980s, the well-known Russian paleontologist Lev Nesov found remains of mammals from the Cretaceous period in Kansai.
Scientists plan to continue excavations in May next year, intending to explore new sites in Kansai. As a result of the extraction of raw materials for cement production in the area, new canyons have emerged, which represent promising areas for further paleontological research.
Some of the found remains have been transferred to the Historical and Regional Museum of the Sughd Region. This institution already holds in its collection, among other things, the remains of a southern mammoth, discovered in 2013, also in Tajikistan.
It is worth adding that Umied Nabiev is currently the only person in Tajikistan studying paleontology, which results from the lack of scientific staff in this field. "Last year, our university began cooperating with Russian scientists who expressed a desire to teach paleontology. I was offered to study this field at the Institute of Zoology and Parasitology of the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, and so far, I am the only student who has chosen this specialty," explains the young scientist.
His mentor is Dmitry Gimranov, a candidate of biological sciences and an employee of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who also participated in the recent expedition in Kansai.
