The petrified remains of sea sponges that lived more than 200 million years ago were discovered in the Oryol region

Prehistoric fossils - the remains of sponges that lived more than 200 million years ago at the bottom of the sea - were discovered in the village of Gagarinka of the Korsakovsky district of the Oryol region.

According to the director of the Oryol Regional Museum of Local Lore, Valentina Titova, the local machine operator drew attention to unusual formations, similar to stone balls when he began to dig a pit under the foundation of a new building. The work was suspended, and the find was reported to the museum, Interfax reports.

The museum staff were very excited by the find: in the region it happened to detect both the mammoth bones and fragments of the skeleton of ichthyosaurus, but they saw fossilized lips in the walls of their museum for the first time.

In order to make sure to whom the fossilized parts of living creatures owned, their fragments were sent to the Moscow Institute of Paleontology for a detailed study. The find turned out to be so rare and unusual that scientists sent additional samples of the found remains to the capital.

"The final response from Moscow scientists is expected at the end of October," Oryol museum workers said.