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The territory of Kazakhstan on the Eurasian continent has a huge scientific and information
potential for comprehensive study of the geohistorical space of this territory, which has unique
significance for studying the evolution of the animal kingdom not only in Kazakhstan and
the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. It should be noted that since the beginning of the 20th
century, unique skeletal remains of ancient animals have began to find on the territory of
Kazakhstan, many of them have brought world fame to Kazakhstan. It was with these finds that
it became a full-fledged scientific testing ground for a comprehensive study of the diversity of
the animal kingdom of past eras. Currently, one of the priority «hot» directions of international
paleontological research is the creation of various data banks, including fossil vertebrates.
In this regard, walking in step with international priorities, there is brewing need to carry
out work to collect the bank by the studied locations with fossil remains of vertebrates from
the Phanerozoic deposits on the territory of Kazakhstan over the past century. It should be
noted that each location of fossil animals is unique in its kind, as it reflects the paleofauna
of a specific period of the geological past. Therefore, possessing these priceless «gifts of
nature» it is necessary to ensure the safety of information about them for future generations
of scientists.
Prospectivity of the conducted studies is obvious, since the bowels of Kazakhstan
land for paleontological discoveries are almost inexhaustible.
It must also be understood that
the locations with paleontological organics are as depleted as mineral deposits. They are not
reproducible! Collection materials collected from these locations are the national property of
each country and are strictly recorded. In this regard, in many countries institutes and museums
create information history departments or cabinets for the scientific organization of foundations,
in which a computerized system for recording and storing them has been created. Instructions
for the reception and registration of collections were developed, as well as instructions for filling
out the database. Themain studies are conductedwithin the framework of the projects «Database
Creation» and «Paleontological Collections». The last 20 years are marked by the fact that
Databases (databases) have been prepared and launched at the sites where information is also
available onKazakhmaterials with obsolete data and covering only some intervals of geological
time or a territorially limited region (Borisyak, Belyaeva, 1948; Nesmeyanov, Dmitrieva, 1982,
M.Fortelius-INTERNET - 2000). In accordance with these priorities, the authors were tasked to
collect a complete information database on the paleontological heritage, openly studied over the
past more than a century from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cainazoic deposits of Kazakhstan.
In addition to databases on epochs, the authors prepared maps of paleontological locations and
natural monuments of Kazakhstan and among them highlighted Protected Natural Territories
(hereinafter referred to as PAs), which are recommended in the list of creation of reserves,
national parks or open-air museums. A list of locations is also presented as recommendations
on the prospects for using databases in the practice of geological services for improving the
stratigraphic schemes of the Cenozoic in Kazakhstan and for various geological surveys of the
territory of the republic. On the basis of the prepared information, the authors for the first time
created an information portal, where an electronic database of the paleontological heritage was
introduced into the scientific circulation. With no doubt, the «DB-Paleontological Heritage»
will promote the wide dissemination of information and the fuller use of information on the
paleontological heritage of Kazakhstan.
Corresponding Member of the Academy
mineral resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan I. L. Fishman