To the study of fossıl bone remaıns of tortoıses (Testudınes, Testudınıdae) from the Bınagadı bıtumen deposıt (Azerbaıjan)

The objects of the study were fossilised bone remains of tortoises extracted from the soil during excavations in the Binagadi bitumen deposit and suburban summer cottages of Absheron.The material was collected and processed during the period from 2020 to 2023 during expeditionary and laboratory researches.The study of the material revealed a large number of bone fragments.The generic and species affiliation of the discovered bone fragments of tortoises was established.The study of the skeletal remains of tortoises found in the Binagadi bitumen deposit in the Late Pleistocene layer (the Late Dryas) and its comparison with the bones of tortoises found in the Holocene layer (the Middle Subatlantic period) on Absheron allowed assuming that the climate at the end of the Pleistocene was cooler and more humid than in the Holocene.This was indicated by some changes in the morphology of the bony shell of tortoises: a decrease in the indices of the ratio of shell length to its width and height, as well as the width of the shell to its height; changes in the size proportions of some bone plates of the carapace and plastron.All these changes presumably reflect some intensification of the adaptation processes associated with significant climate changes in Azerbaijan in general and in its eastern part particularly during the specified geological period (more than 0.012 million years ago).