46 million years back: In Velyky Berezny district tourists will be shown the Transcarpathian pre-sea

Such somewhat unusual, but very interesting, ecological, scientific and cognitive route will be laid in the spring in the Uzhok National Park.

The route will lead to the high hill on the outskirts of the village of Verkhovyna Bystra in Velyky Berezny district, where in 1968 the locals found the amazing stone with the imprint of a tuna fish skeleton.  Local resident Vasyl Strashkulych recalls how they stumbled upon a unique discovery: "I came to the village to help parents with mowing, and in the morning went to the mountains.When the work was about halfway done, I saw an excited and somewhat befuddled neighbor, an elderly man, running and calling to look at the "big miracle". I remember that the artifact first stunned both of us, and then all the village – people came to my father’s yard to look at the real mystery of nature. One of the locals asked to give him the stone for the construction of a house – he wanted to make it part of the facade. I insisted to find scientists and show them the fossilized fish."

After a long journey through scholars’ cabinets the artifact became the most valuable showpiece of the fossil collection in the Transcarpathian museum, visibly standing out among 1,500 other artifacts. Tuna fish, which probably lived in our region 46 million years ago, is a witness of the times when the current territory of Transcarpathia for a long time (more than 100 million years) was flooded by the sea – part of the great Tethys ocean.

It is planned to install at the spot where the artifact was found an information stand detailing the findings and hypotheses of scientists and a brief description of other similar artifacts.