The Starunia palaeontological site and idea of the Ukrainian-Polish trans-border geotourist trail “Traces of large extinct mammals, earth wax, oil and salt: from Starunia to Kraków”

Abstract

The discovery of large Pleistocene mammals at the Starunia ozokerite (named also earth wax) mine (the Ukrainian Carpathians) was a spectacular scientific event on a world scale. The initial discovery was made in 1907 when relics of party preserved mammoth and woolly rhinoceros were excavated. Later, in 1929, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences organized a scientific expedition to that site, which resulted in discovery of unique, nearly completely preserved woolly rhinoceros carcass embedded in Pleistocene sediments. A specific combination of brine, oil and clays into which the animal had sunk, is responsible for almost perfect preservation of this animal. The specimens found in 1907 are exhibited at the Natural History Museum in Lviv, Ukraine, whereas the unique specimen excavated in 1929 is displayed at the Natural History Museum in Krakow, Poland. The three sites: Starunia, a small Ukrainian village in which the geopark with the museum and the tourist centre are planned to be developed and two historical towns: Lviv and Krakow, closely connected with the discoveries of extinct large mammals, will be the key sites at the planned, Ukrainian-Polish trans-border geotourist trail “Traces of large extinct mammals, earth wax, oil and salt: from Starunia to Krakow”. The trail will also include the sites where occurrences of ozokerite, salt, brine and oil are known, i.e., the substances which preserved the animal carcasses. These are: the historical rock-salt mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia (Poland), Kalush and Stebnik (Ukraine), the Polish resorts – Iwonicz-Zdroj and Rymanow-Zdroj and the most famous Ukrainian resort – Truskavets; one of the oldest oilfields in the world – Bobrka, where the Ignacy Łukasiewicz Memorial Open-Space Museum of Oil and Gas Industry is located and Boryslav oil and ozokerite field – the largest deposit in the Ukrainian Carpathians. The idea of Ukrainian-Polish trans-border tourist trail is strongly supported by geological, natural and cultural values of the Polish and the Ukrainian Carpathians.