Uzbekistan

Dinosaurs, prehistoric animals and humans, fossils on stamps of Uzbekistan

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Contents:
Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan, located in Central Asia, is a unitary, constitutional, presidential republic, comprising twelve provinces, one autonomous republic and a capital city.
Once part of the Turkic Khaganate and later Timurid Empires, the region that today includes the Republic of Uzbekistan was conquered in the early 16th century by Eastern Turkic-speaking nomads.
The area was gradually incorporated into the Russian Empire during the 19th century and in 1924 what is now Uzbekistan became a bordered constituent republic of the Soviet Union, known as the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR).
Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, it declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan on 31 August 1991 (officially celebrated the following day). [R1]

The first stamps of Uzbekistan were issued on 7 May 1992.
Before then, Uzbekistan used stamps of the Soviet Union. In 1993 and 1995 the Uzbekistan Post Office resorted to overprinting stamps of the Soviet Union as supplies of the new Uzbek stamps ran low. [R2]




Official stamps of Uzbekistan related to Paleontology and Paleoanthropology: fossils and reconstructions of prehistoric animals and humans

13.12.1999 "Prehistoric animals" 10.05.2002 "Prehistoric hominids" 01.12.2004 "25th Anniversary of the foundation of the Kitab geological reserve" [1]
Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals on stamps of Uzbekistan 1999 Prehistoric hominids on stamps of Uzbekistan 2002 fossil of ammonite on stamps of Uzbekistan 2004

Notes:
[1] The Kitab State Geological Reserve was established in 1979 by a decree of the Government of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. to study paleontologic and stratigraphic objects representing scientific monuments of the geological history of the Earth.
Since 2020, the Kitab Geological Reserve become a National Natural Park status.
The reserve is located in the Kitab district of the Kashkadarya region.
The Kitab State Geological Reserve is located on the territory of the ancient Tethys Sea, which existed 370-470 million years ago, in which the sea sediments of the middle Ordovician-Carboniferous accumulated, covered up in some places by Neogene-Quaternary sediments.
Fossil of prehistoric cephalopod - Ammonite shown on the label attached to the stamp. [R3]



Other stamps of Uzbekistan to consider: contributors to Paleontology

30.12.2020 "Spiritual heritage of Uzbekistan: Abu Rayhan al-Birundi (973-1048)" [O1]
Abu Rayhan al-Birundi (973-1048) on stamp of Uzbekistan 2020

Notes:
[O1] Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973-1048) commonly known as al-Biruni, was a scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age.
al-Biruni was born in the outer district (Bīrūn) of Kath, the capital of the Afrighid dynasty of Khwarezm (Chorasmia) in Central Asia - now part of the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan in the northwest of Uzbekistan.
He has been called variously the "founder of Indology", "Father of Comparative Religion", "Father of Modern Geodesy". Al-Biruni is considered by some to be the first anthropologist as he studied the customs and religions of India.
He expressed an opinion about the possibility of the Earth moving around the Sun and determined the circumference of the Earth.
He may have been the first person to suggest a standard ordering of geologic time with different eras that followed one another. In this way, he identified the concept of stratigraphy.
In his work about India, he suggested, based on fossil evidence, that the region had been under sea. It was quite innovative thinking.
In Europe, scholars and later scientists believed in an unchanging Earth and recognized fossils as "game of nature", rather than remains of prehistoric animals until 19th century.
[R3]



References:


Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for reviewing the draft page and his valuable comments.


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