Ancient Fossils of Nizhny Novgorod: From Kremlin to Metro

You can see fossils of ancient animals not only in museums. In Nizhny Novgorod, traces of marine organisms, dating back millions of years, are discovered on the walls of the Kremlin and metro stations.

Information about these finds is contained in the guidebook of the Nizhny Novgorod Museum-Reserve, created by employees of the nature department Galina Shalfitskaya and Alexander Varenov. In the Kremlin, there is also an excursion «Traces of Vanished Worlds» dedicated to the inhabitants of ancient seas.

Memorial Sign near the Ivanovskaya Tower

A composition of stones with an image of the first settlers and a quote from the chronicle was installed near the Ivanovskaya Tower in 1976. In the limestone of the memorial sign, clusters of fossilized remains can be seen, including imprints of mollusk shells.

Spring on Ivanovsky Descent

The area near the spring was developed in 1985 using limestone and rubble stone. On these materials, traces of ancient organisms have been preserved, such as solitary rugose corals and sea urchins.

Zachatyevskaya Tower

The tower, destroyed at the end of the 19th century, was recreated in 2012. Now its walls represent a kind of fossil exhibition, where you can see:

• fusulinids — single-celled organisms in the form of grains;
• rugosa — a solitary coral;
• eomphalus — a gastropod mollusk with a flat spiral shell about 10 cm;
• bellerophon — a smaller gastropod mollusk;
• sea urchins, whose fossils resemble white stripes;
• brachiopods — animals with bivalve shells.

All listed fossils belong to the Carboniferous period, their age exceeds 299 million years.

Kremlin Wall

Traces of brachiopods, sea urchins, and other ancient creatures are found on the walls of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, for example, in the area of the Governor«s Garden.

Arsenal

On the walls of the exhibition space «Arsenal» in the Kremlin, fossils are also present: fusulinids, fragments of mollusk shells, and brachiopods.

Gorkovskaya Metro Station

Fossils are incorporated into the interior of the Gorkovskaya metro station in the city center. On the facing tiles, traces of fusulinids, rugose corals, brachiopods, sea lilies, and chaetetids — a marine sponge — are distinguishable.