"Zmei Gorynych" (Miocene of Kazakhstan)

Also known as Ashutas Mountain

Where: East Kasakhstan, Kazakhstan (48.0° N, 85.4° E: paleocoordinates 48.7° N, 84.3° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

When: Akzhar Formation, Early/Lower Miocene (23.0 - 16.0 Ma)

• "Early Miocene (Akzharsky suite)" (Zerova 1992)

Environment/lithology: fluvial-lacustrine; siliciclastic sediments

• Deposition took place under warm-temperate humid conditions (Bruch & Shilin, 2007).
• The Akzhar Formation comprises sands and gypsiferous clays and was deposited in an actively subsiding basin that started to form in the far field of the Himalayan tectonics at the Oligocene/Miocene transition (Orudzheva & Obukhov, 1991, Geologia Nefti 25(7/8):278-280).

Size class: mesofossils

Primary reference: G. A. Zerova. 1992. Vipera (Daboia) ukrainica – a new viper (Serpentes; Viperidae) from the Middle Sarmatian (Upper Miocene) of the Ukraine. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 184(2):235-249 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 167805: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 03.04.2015, edited by Evangelos Vlachos

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Amphibia
 Salientia - Bufonidae
Bufonidae indet. Gray 1825 toad
Reptilia
 Testudines - Testudinidae
 Squamata - Boidae
Eryx sp. Daudin 1803 true sand boa
 Squamata - Crotalidae
"Pelias sp." = Vipera (Pelias) Merrem 1820 pit viper
? Vipera (Daboia) sp. Gray 1842 oriental viper
fragmentary vertebra(e), "large viper of Vipera xanthina size [...], but this find may also be attributed to the subfamily Crotalinae"
 Squamata - Anguidae
Anguis sp. Linnaeus 1758 slow worm