GROZNY, June 4. /TASS/. A giant fossil scallop shell from the Jurassic period, some 80 million years ago, has been discovered in the mountains of Chechnya, the press service of the North Caucasian republic's government said on Thursday.

"The shell is three meters in diameter," the press service quoted the head of the Argun museum-reserve, Said-Emin Dzhabrailov, as saying.

According to Dzhabrailov, a similar fossil was found earlier only in Russia's Far East.