The new building of Perm University was built a few years ago. The marble plates of the walls and the marble steps of the stairs can tell us a lot of interesting things. What we can see in these plates is not only a chaotic pattern of marble. We can clearly see the skeleton remains of sea invertebrate animals.
In the distant geological past (about 350 - 300 mln years ago), namely in the Carboniferous period of Paleozoic era the sea with this fauna covered a greater part of the Eastern European Platform from Smolensk and Moscow to the Eastern Urals. Numerous samples of the Paleozoic fauna with similar regular structure and of similar geologic age extracted from boreholes and natural outcrops is a convincing proof of the carboniferous sea extensive spreading.
The ancient carboniferous sea used to splash on the big territory of Perm Region. This carboniferous sea occupied a much larger territory which may be proved by the investigations of one of the authors (V.P. Ozhgibesov) and Professor of Eastern Washington University Dr. Ernest H. Gilmour. We arrived at the conclusion that the thickets of the sea lilies on the bottom of carboniferous sea in North America is similar to those of the Urals.
While taking exams on Palaeontology and Sedimentology the 2-nd year students of Geological faculty are given tasks to determine the systematic belonging of the fossils and their paleogeography. They do it studying the fragments of colonial and individual corals (Coelenterata, Tetracoralla) and the fragments of bryozoans (Bryozoa, Fenestellida) with magnifying glass at the marble plates on the floor and walls of the geological faculty building.
In the thickets of Crinoidea one may see corals, brachiopods, bryozoans. We can often find the samples of Crinoidea, Bryozoa and other remains in the Permian Sylva reefs and in the carboniferous limestones near Gubakha. Students can investigate these paleontological remains in the natural outcrops in the Perm Region too.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Dr. Ernest H. Gilmour (Eastern Washington University) for the support to have organized the visit of Dr. Vladimir P. Ozhgibesov to the USA and provided an interesting geological programme and Geological Faculty of Perm State University for the support of our participation in the project of the Russian and European Academies of Natural History.
The work is submitted to the Scientific International Conference «Innovative Technology in Higher and Vocational Education», August, 2-9, 2008, Spain (Costa del Azaar), came to the editorial office on 30.06.2008.