The presence of marine fossils in the Ural Mountains are the results of their formation created by the collision of the European and Siberian parts of the Eurasian plate. The first step in the process resulting in the presence of marine fossils on top of the Urals Mountains started with the rifting and separation of an older continent. The rift continued to widen, eventually progressing into full-fledged seafloor spreading that created an ancient ocean, called by geologists the "Palaeouralian ocean," during the Late Cambrian–Lower Ordovician periods. While this ocean existed, several kilometers of marine sediments along with the remains of innumerable marine animals that lived in this ocean accumulated within it. Starting in Late Devonian Period
