ON THE FIND OF AN ELEPHANT MANDIBLE NEAR TIRASPOL (PRIDNESTROVYE)

In sand and gravel quarries on the Left Bank of the Dniester in the course of extraction of raw materials for building industry the workers often find the remains of the fauna of large mammals. The productive strata in these open quarries are represented predominantly by alluvial deposits of Pleistocene age.

Significant areas are covered by the sediments of the V Kolkotov terrace of the River Dniester, stretching from NW to SE as continuous strip from Dubossary to the Kuchurgan liman. The width of the terrace in the north is more than 6 km, the height 60-75 m a.s.l. In the south, the width is more than 10 km, the height lowers to 40-45 m a.s.l.

The deposits of the V terrace of the Dniester are represented by sands and gravels of the riverbed facies, as well as by clayey and sandy-clayey sediments of oxbow lakes and floodplains.

The sites with faunal remains of the Kolkotov terrace are widely known (Kolkotovaya Balka, Sukleya and Malayeshty). In these locations were found unique remains of fossil vertebrates, molluscs, ostracods. This fauna was assigned to a separate complex – the Tiraspol faunal complex.

The section from the Kolkotovaya Balka (Tiraspol) was designated the stratotype for Europe and model for the correlation of the Middle Pleistocene deposits and faunas of Eurasia.

In the quarry on the outskirts of Tiraspol at the end of 2019 (the location of Sukleya, parastratotype), in the middle part of the layer of sands and gravels was found the mandible of a large representative of the order Proboscidea.

The find is represented by right and left parts of the mandible with m2 with partly preserved ascending branches. The good preservation of the mandible and the degree of the teeth abrasion permit to assign these fossils to a particular species.

The morphological characteristics and the measurements of the teeth indicate most probably the presence of the straight-tusked elephant, Palaeoloxodon antiquus, widely known in Europe and Western Asia in the Middle and Late Pleistocene.

The remains of the mandible are housed in the Geological-Palaeontological Museum of the T. G. Shevchenko Pridnestrovian State University.