From the school course in geography, I remember the fact that the Caucasus Mountains are geologically young. According to official geochronology, their age is only a few millions of years. This is indirectly confirmed by pointed peaks and ridges, which erosion has not yet had time to smooth out. The same can be said about the Himalayas and the Alps.
The scientific world sometimes advances in some topics and moves away from the established ossified dogmas. This time the Caucasus was rejuvenated even more. Thanks to the findings of paleoanthropologists who found the remains of ancient animals in the sites of ancient people. Most of them are clearly not adapted to living in mountainous areas: the southern elephant, the ancestor of the giraffe, antelope, hyena, etc.
Animals from the climate of the savannah type. And in the Caucasus mountains now the climate is continental. It is softer only on the seashore. There is no vegetation, the speed of movement in the mountains is limited - these animals could become prey to predators. This is not their habitat. Dating the bones of these animals using the potassium-argon method gave an age of 1.8-1 million years.
According to this information, scientists have concluded that there were no Caucasus Mountains as early as 1 million years ago. It was a savanna-type plain. But this is geological dating. There are old maps, where in the 16-17 centuries. The Caucasus Mountains are absent. They refer to the period when the Caspian Sea was different:
The maps show three large rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea (listed from north to south): Tura, Terka and Zunsa, Akza (with tributaries Manfur and Arazuga) and the Koifa River. Some kind of Indo-European names, consonant with Sanskrit. Of these, only the Terka is now consonant - similar to the modern name of the Terek River. The second slide is a map with the territory already in the process of changing to the present view of the Caspian.
Promotional video:
Terek and Kuma flow into the Caspian from the big rivers in our time.
I did not find photographs of the elephant excavations in the Caucasus, but I found information about two skeletons of the southern elephant (there were only five of them in the world) in the Stavropol Museum of Local Lore:
Skeletons of southern elephants and the ancestor of the rhinoceros Elasmotherium, who lived in these parts. And this is nearby in the Caucasus. Similar in size to mammoths. I wonder how anthropologists distinguish them? The third slide is a photograph from the archives of the museum, the process of excavation of the found skeleton of an elephant. One of the skeletons was found in 1960 on the river bank.
Even in the Caucasus Mountains, finds of ancient marine life are not rare. Here are some examples:
Ancient ammonites. In one of the villages, a museum was made from these finds. Scientists claim that they are inhabitants of the so-called ancient Sarmatian Sea (which existed 10-13 million years ago).
Only it is not clear why these finds are found in the mountains, when the Caucasus Mountains on this model rise above the water? Those. some geological models contradict others, saying that the Caucasus Mountains did not exist for another 1 million years
The fossilized jaw of an ichthyosaur. But these findings date back to tens of millions of years - they lived before elephants.
I believe that this territory was different several centuries ago. Perhaps these ancient animals also lived quite recently. And the Caucasus Mountains need to be rejuvenated even more.
Author: sibved
