"The Republic"
#069(1098), March 17, 2001

The elephant turned into the dinosaur.

The information of last days in the media and TV about the discovered in Mingechevir city remains of ancient animals is falsely interpreted.

According to this information there was found the cemetery of dinosaurs in Mingechevir. This information is completely wrong. There are never could be found the remains of dinosaurs in Azerbaijan. It is necessary for the existence of these huge animals the wide overland territory with rich flora. In the period of rapid development of dinosaurs from 200 millions years ago till 65 millions years ago almost whole territory of Azerbaijan was under the ocean. The representative of the Institute of Archeology of Academy of Sciences Hasanaga Ramazanli making public the unconfirmed information didn't thought that the foreign specialists and scientists could come to Azerbaijan and particularly to Mingechevir to visit the cemetery of dinosaurs, which are never were here. In this case we can disgrace ourself.

The discovered in Mingechevir remains belong not to the dinosaurs, but to the elephants. This is the conclusion which I and the professor of the Baku State University Gara Mustafayev made after the research of this find. Later the representative of the Institute of Geology of Academy of Sciences the paleontologist Tariel Heybatov also confirmed our opinion. The discovery, elephant remains, was invented on the southeastern coast of Mingechevir reservoir, on the northern mountainside of Dayirmandag in the solid stratum of sand related to the Baku epoch of fourth geological period. The absolute geological age of this sand stratum is about 600 thousand years. These remains include the maxilla, separate fragments of bones of elephant. The bones of the discovered animals aren't in the anatomical order, and therefore could say that their were brought here by water streams. The Kura-Araks lowland was at hat period under the water of Caspian Sea up to the Jeyranchol. The Caspian Sea gulf of Kura were gathered around by the plains in the north, west and south, which were covered by the great number of rivers. The natural conditions that period were like in the African savanna. There were elephants, rhinoceroses, wild bulls, bisons, horses, deers and other wood and field animals on this territory. All this I said in the program which was prepared for the translating on TV. The professor Gara Mustafayev also confirmed all what I said. But in was not translated on TV. Instead that there was put on the air the appearance of one, who is not a specialist in this area. So the elephant turned into the dinosaur because of the cheap sensation.

It is important to note that there is not the first discovery of elephant remains on the territory of Azerbaijan. We discovered the elephant remains in Garadja mountain not far from Mingechevir, in the west from Mingechevir in Bozdag, in southwestern Duzdag and Jeyranchol. But I don't want to diminish the amount of this discovery. Every discovery like this is very valuable for science. This find let us to reconstitute the geological past of exuviae (animals kingdom), nature and climate of our territory. According to the Haji Lutfeli Babayev this discovery has great future. The Geology and Geography Institutes of Academy of Sciences could carry out here the extensive researches if there will be enough funds for these purposes.

Alashraf Mammedov
The member correspondent of Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, the Doctor of geology-mineralogical sciences, professor.

• "Khalg" ("Nation") February 12, 2001
• "Echo" March 16, 2001
• "Ayna" ("Mirror") March 17, 2001
• Photos