Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

V. N. Aliyassova, K. K. Akhmetov, I. R. Aspanova 

 

 

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companions. Sabre-toothed cats, having underdeveloped molar teeth, could 

not chew meat and thus could only eat the soft innards of their prey, so a 

significant proportion of the meat they left behind went to the hyenas. 

Fossilised hyenas found at Gussinyi Perelet were similar in type to modern 

African spotted hyenas. 

No less interesting a representative of this ancient fauna was the 

rhinoceros, Chilotherium. There are currently two hypotheses regarding 

their ecological niche. The first is based on the structure of the chewing 

surfaces of their teeth, which is characteristic of animals grazing on the 

tough grass of the steppe. Further support for this hypothesis is provided 

by the middle toe of their feet, which suggests adaption to life in open 

plains. The second hypothesis suggests that based on their short legs these 

rhinoceroses dwelt in low wetland areas, and only later forms of this species 

were able to adapt to the open steppe. It is believed that these rhinos lived 

mainly in waterside areas and spent a major part of their existence close to 

or in water, much like modern hippopotamuses. 

The evolution of the landscape and geography of the Priirtyshja 

region (in which Pavlovdar is located) had to be revaluated in 1958 after V. 

V. Kuznetsov discovered a fragment of another continental plate typical of 

the coastal area containing a rather large turtle carapace in the Gussinyi 

Perelet sediments.

5

 Further research of this coastal plate identified the 

carapace as belonging to a type of sea turtle. This made a very interesting 

find: Gussinyi Perelet is a long way inland, yet the remains of sea turtles 

were discovered amongst the mammalian bones of the Hipparion fauna. 

The discovery of marine fauna in a continental area is an unusual 

phenomenon, requiring explanation. There is reason to believe that in the 

era the Hipparion fauna roamed, the territory now known as Kazakhstan 

had a climate similar to modern subtropical regions such as India. It is 

possible that during seasonal floods or periods of torrential rainfall, small 

lakes situated in low areas of dry land may have spread and connected with 

each other, perhaps even connecting down to the sea, which was a 

considerable distance to the west of modern Priirtyshja. Under such 

circumstances, individual marine animals may have been able to penetrate 

beyond their usual habitat through these connected reservoirs or, under 

certain conditions, they may have been passively carried to such places. 

After the waters receded, their return passage would have been cut off. 

Some palaeontologists suggest that floods after heavy rains could have been 

so powerful that they engendered turbulent flows that washed slow and 

weak animals into lowlands and temporary pools. There could also have 

                                                 

5

 Kuznetsov 1958, p. 69-71. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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Preservation for the Musefication of the Natural Heritage Site “Gussinyi Perelet”

 

 

495

been other natural flows of turbulent water that carried these animals into 

the main course of the ancient river. 

A special place amongst the Hipparion fauna is reserved for a type of 

pinniped (seal) - the semantor - which has only ever been found amongst 

the fauna of Gussinyi Perelet. The find again begs the question of how this 

animal penetrated such a long way inland. Most likely, it originated where 

the delta system flowed into the sea, and it is possible that it migrated in the 

same way as the sea turtles. 

Some scholars have naturally questioned whether the remains of sea 

turtles and semantora might have been redeposited as a result of destructive 

Neogene floods and other natural processes, causing the bones of marine 

animals to become mixed with terrestrial ones. This, however, is not 

supported by the evidence, as it is known that in the process of 

redeposition, older sediments tend to undergo significant processing, 

becoming rolled-up as a result of displacement, which has not been 

observed in this case. Thus, the presence of marine animals such as 

pinniped semantora and sea turtles can only be due to the fact that the river 

was at some point linked to the sea.  

In general, however, the hipparion fauna are typically creatures that 

dwelt in lake and river areas in a savannah landscape. 

There are thousands of items of skeletal material buried in the 

Neogene sand-clay depths of Pavlodar, and most are from ungulates that 

may have been victims of a natural disaster. The mass death could have 

resulted from a sudden flood caused by rains accompanied by a hurricane; a 

wildfire from a lightning strike in the dry summer, which spread across the 

steppe; or a long catastrophic drought in which animals died not only from 

lack of moisture and food, but attacked each other whilst crowding around 

the watering hole. Animals could also have been killed en masse by the 

flooding of the ancient river. Skeletal remains of fauna that lived along its 

shores were periodically washed away from meadows and rivers banks, and 

accumulated in depressions that later formed lens-shaped deposits of bone.

6

 

The banks of small ponds in the Pavlodar region became burial places 

where half-decayed remains of dead animals were periodically covered in 

mud. It is interesting to note that about 80% of the hiloteriya rhinoceros 

bones discovered there belong to young animals. This is a possible 

consequence of temporary droughts which killed off younger animals that 

were less able to tolerate lack of water. Flooding could have caused further 

burial, but would not have been the cause of death: animals are killed by 

floods tend to be buried with their skeletons more-or-less intact, and 

                                                 

6

 Orlov 1989, p. 43-44. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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