Jurassic Moscow metro
Jurassic Moscow metro
More than fifty stations of Moscow Metro can find fossils of ancient animals that have existed in the era of dinosaurs.
I'm sure many have heard that in the late Jurassic - early Cretaceous period, the sea was in Moscow. And now the city is located at the bottom of a dried-up sea. Therefore, the remains of some ancient sea creatures, such as Rostra belemnite ( devil's fingers) and small shells of ammonites can be found in the ravines of Moscow and the Moscow region. But ... But not many people have heard that the ancient fossils are often found in the Moscow metro.
In the capital's subway can be found nautilus fossils, ammonites, belemnite and other representatives of the Jurassic period. But they are not striking. People hurrying about their business, or do not notice them, or accept deposits like pattern on marble and do not realize that in fact it is the remains of organisms that more than 200 million years.
For facing the stations of the Moscow metro it was used mainly marble and marbleized limestone. It rocks were formed from the shells of ancient sea creatures. Under the action of pressure and temperature it is transformed into marble limestone, but when the process is stopped at an intermediate stage, it appears marbleized limestone.
Facing stone was brought to Moscow from the two deposits in the Chelyabinsk region, from Georgia, Uzbekistan, Armenia and the Crimea. Stone was used not only in the underground, but also in the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the White House. Virtually all the basements of old Kremlin cathedrals, many pavilions at the Exhibition Center, the main building of Moscow State University of the suburban built of limestone-rich remnants of marine life. And on what the stations can meet marine life?
The most common small objects, such as fragments of stems of crinoids. Crinoids have a distant resemblance to the flowers - a cup with tentacles on the stalk, stem, through which they are attached to the bottom.
But make no mistake. Crinoids not plant, and echinoderms, relatives of sea stars and sea urchins. But there are large samples.
For example, the biggest inhabitant of the Moscow metro is considered ammonite at the station Victory Park. The diameter of its shell is 60 centimeters. Ammonites fairly large group of marine invertebrate animals of prey (belong to the class of cephalopods).
They reached their peak in the Mesozoic era and became extinct along with the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. In addition to the Victory Park ammonites are found at the stations Arbat, Dobryninskaya, Krasnopresnenskaya, Electrozavodskaya, Komsomolskaya (ring). On Krasnopresnenskaya you can still see the remains of the nautilus and other cephalopods.
At the station, Electrozavodskaya besides ammonites can stumble upon a large nautilus shell or on brachiopods, sea urchins on the needle or on fragments of stems of crinoids. Nautilus can still be found at the stations Dobryninskaya, Lenin Square, Paveletskaya, Lubyanka.
You can also find corals growing stations Krasnoselsky, Arbat, Airport, Kursk, Pipe, and in the transition to the station Kiev. Belemnites live on the Victory Park and Elektrozavodskaya.
One of the oldest and most primitive multicellular animals is a sponge. They can be found at the stations, Day, Kashira, Arbat, Frunze, Electrozavodskaya Komsomol, Krasnopresnenskaya.
Brachiopods - marine invertebrates living in single-ended bivalve shells live to Kakhovka, Frunze, Arbat, Lenin Square and Krasnopresnenskaya.
Gastropods - cephalopods, the ancestors of modern snails settled to the station Lenin Library., Color boulevard, Pipe Lenin Square , Krasnopresnenskaya , Krasnoselsky and Kursk (in transition).
But fossils are found not only on older plants. In today they are also present in sufficient quantity, such as Victory Park stations and Anino, where used Italian marbleized limestone with a name Ammonitiko Russia. I think the title speaks for itself.
Perhaps the most unique and most ancient (few billion years) are stromatolites - the traces of life of bacterial communities. It is believed that these bacteria have contributed to the formation of the oxygen atmosphere. Traces of their colonies can be seen in the marble, in the Sokolniki station.