June 22, 2026

Russia Pt. 2, Paleontology and Fossils

Introduction

Figure 1 – Fossil Ant, Dolichoderus tertiarius, in Baltic Amber
Credit: Vincent Perrichot, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

Last week we looked at the geology of Russia, which includes rocks and deposits from the ancient Archean to the present Holocene. Let’s take a walk through time and take a look at the fossils from Russia, beginning in the Ediacaran Period, or as the Russians call it the Vendian Period, at the end of the Precambrian.

Mawsonites

Figure 2 – Mawsonites
Credit: Ghedoghedo, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

Last year, geologists Anton V. Kolesnikov, Violetta A. Pan’kova, and Vladimir N. Pan’kov found fossils of Mawsonites in the Chernyi Kamen Formationof the Ural Mountains, a formation that dates from the Vendian (or Ediacaran) Period of the Proterozoic Eon. The fossil remains of Mawsonites were first found in Australia in the in the Ediacara Hills and later found in Russia. Mawsonites fossils are difficult to interpret and probably represent some sort of trace fossil.

Kolesnikov, Pan’kova, and Pan’kova also record the discovery of two other Ediacaran fossils besides Mawsonites, these were Palaeopascichnus and Hiemalora. Other fossil organisms found in the the Chernyi Kamen Formation include: Aspidella, Beltanelliformis, Cyclomedusa, Dickinsonia, Eoporpita, Protodipleurosoma,and Tirasiana.

Eoobolus priscus

Figure 3 - Eoobolus priscus
Credit: Figure 5 in Kouchinsky et al, 2022

Eoobolus priscus was a lingulid brachiopod that lived during the Cambrian Period. In 2022, a team of geologists published a paper describing fossils in the Emyaskin Formation of northern Siberia, including Eoobolus priscus.

Lingulids are a group of brachiopods with chitinous shells that live in the muddy substrate, a good place to be fossilized. I say “are” because lingulids are still among us, the modern creature in this family is called Lingula(some of you might remember it from your paleontology class).

Megistaspis

Figure 4 - Megistaspis
Credit: Wikipek,Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Megistaspis was a genus of asaphid trilobites that lived throughout the Early and Middle Ordovician in what is now the Baltic region. Asaphina trilobites were described for the St. Petersburg and Estonia region by Efrosinya Antonovna Balashova in 1976.

Streptograptus loydelli

Figure 5 - Chemically isolated specimen of Streptograptus loydelli
Credit: Figure 4 in Bogolepova et al, 2000

Streptograptus loydelli was a graptolite, a sedentary colonial animal, that lived during the Silurian Period, generally in the Baltic region. In 2000, however, Olga K. Bogolepova, Alexander P. Gubanov, and David K Loydell published a paper describing Streptograptus loydellifossils that they found on Severnaya Zemlya.

Parmastega

Figure 6 – Reconstruction of Parmastega
Credit: Entelognathus, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

Parmastega was an early tetrapod from the Famennian age of the Devonian Period. In 2019, a team of geologists, Pavel A. Beznosov, Jennifer A. Clack, Ervīns Lukševičs, Marcello Ruta & Per Erik Ahlberg, described fossils of Parmastegathat they discovered on the Timan Ridge in the Komi Republic of northern Russia. The geology of the deposits holding Parmastega fossils suggests that the creature lived in lagoons and shallow waters, much like modern crocodiles.

Lepidodendron

Figure 7 – Lepidodendron Fossil from Mount Uytag, Khakassia, Siberia
Credit: Кунари, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

Lepidodendron was a vascular plant that lived in many parts of the world during the Carboniferous Period. Sometimes called scale trees, Lepidodendronwas a tree like plant that grew to over 50 m tall and 1 m in diameter. Its remains formed much of the coal after which the Carboniferous Period is named. Neither an angiosperm nor a gymnosperm, Lepidodendron’s closest modern relative are the quillworts, such as Isoëtes.

In Russia, fossils of Lepidodendron are found in the Kuznetzk Basin, the Moscow Basin, the Rostov-on-Don Region, the Orenburg Region. Indeed, you are likely to find fossils of Lepidodendron wherever Carboniferous age coal seams are present.

Inostrancevia alexandri

Figure 8 - Inostrancevia alexandri Skeleton
Credit: Matteo De Stefano/MUSE, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

A predatory gorgonopsian that lived during the Late Permian,Inostrancevia alexandri lived in what is now European Russia. Inostrancevia alexandri was a fairly large creature, 3 to 3 ½ m long and was the apex predatorof its time.

Fossils of Inostrancevia were first found in the Northern Dvina region of Russia by Vladimir Amalitskii from excavations that he began in 1890. Amalitskii named the fossil after his teacher, Aleksandr Inostrantsev.

Flexoptychites

Figure 9 – Flexoptychites
Credit: Antonov, public domain

Flexoptychites was a genus of ammonoids that lived during the Olenekian Age of the Triassic Period. Fossil remains of Flexoptychites have been found from Western Europe to Japan. In 2024, a team of geologists (Y. D. Zakharov, Y. Nakajima, M. S. Arkhangelsky, A. M. Popov, L. G. Bondarenko, O. P. Smyshlyaeva & V. K. Pokrovsky) identified two new species of Flexoptychites in Triassic aged sediments from South Primorye, Far East Russia.

Morganucodon

Figure 10 - Life Restoration of Morganucodon
Credit: FunkMonk, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Morganucodonis a fossil recovered from the Middle Jurassic in Russia. Believed to be an early mammal, possibly the earliest, fossils of Morganucodon,have been found in Wales, Europe and China. In Russia, fossil remains of Morganucodoncome from the Peski Quarry in near Moscow and from the Berezovsk coal mine in Siberia.

Phyllopachyceras

Figure 11 – Phyllopachyceras
Credit: Hectonichus, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Phyllopachyceras was one of many ammonoids found in Russia, this one was from the Late Cretaceous. A geographically widespread genus, fossils of Phyllopachyceras have been found in Antarctica, Argentina, Austria, China, France, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Spain, Ukraine and United States. In Russia, fossils of Phyllopachyceras were found in the Russian Far East

Tasbacka

Figure 12 – Tasbacka
Credit: FunkMonk, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Tasbacka was a genus of sea turtle that lived during the lower Paleogene (Paleocene to Eocene). The type species of the genus, Tasbacka aldabergeni, was first identified by Lev A. Nesov in 1987 from fossils found in Kazakhstan. The most recent paper on Tasbacka aldabergeni described fossils from Rostov Province. Other species of Tasbackawere found in Denmark, Germany and the USA.

Russia also has Eocene aged fossils in amber, such as Dolichoderus tertiarius, the fossil ant in Figure 1, above.

Plioperdix

Figure 13 – Plioperdix
Credit: Петр Меньшиков, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

Plioperdix was a genus of phasianid bird that lived during the Neogene Period. Fossils of the genus have been found in in Moldova, Ukraine, Transbaikalia, Mongolia, Morocco, Hungary, as well as Russia. In Russia, Plioperdix fossils have been found in Central Asia and adjacent to the Sea of Azov.

Mammuthus primigenius

Figure 14 - Mammuthus primigenius
Credit: Jl FilpoC, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

One of the most iconic Quaternary fossils from Russia, and from much of the Northern Hemisphere, is that of Mammuthus primigenius, a.k.a. the Woolly Mammoth. Adapted to the icy conditions of the Pleistocene Epoch, Woolly Mammoths lived throughout Russia as well as in Europe and North America.

Not only have the bones of these creatures been found, but also frozen remains, such as the Yuka specimen and the Yukagir mammoth. Last year, a remarkably well preserved skeleton of a Woolly Mammoth was found in Pechevalavato Lake.

Summary

Figure 15 - Inside the Orlov Paleontological Museum, Moscow
Credit: Arseny, public domain

That was a quick look at the paleontology of Russia. Of necessity, it only scrapes the surface and covers fossils for which I could find good references. Check up on those references for more information. There have been many heroic paleontological expeditions in Russia and there are many more papers worth reading.

Perhaps some day you will visit the Orlov Paleontological Museum in Moscow. I will put it on my list if I ever get to visit Moscow, maybe after the present troubles are over.

Standard Caveat

J. Robert Oppenheimer on freedom and scientific inquiry

The purpose of my weblog postings is to spark people's curiosity in geology. Don't entirely believe me until you've done your own research and checked the evidence. If I have sparked your curiosity in the subject of this posting, follow up with some of the links provided here. If you want to, go out into the field and examine some rocks on your own with the help of a good field guide. Follow the evidence and make up your own mind.

In science, the only authority is the evidence.