Ecosystem reconstruction of an extraordinary lake basin - the Triassic Madygen Formation (Southern Fergana Valley, Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia)

• Applicant: Dr. Sebastian Voigt
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2006 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 23281999

Goal of research is the reconstruction of the depositional environment, organisms and bioticabiotic interactions in an Early Mesozoic freshwater lake and its adjacent habitats. Based on findings from the 1960s the Triassic Madygen Formation is world-famous for an abundant and diverse fossil community including gliding tetrapods with exceptional soft-tissue preservation. However, there are almost no facts concerning the geologic and palaeoenvironmental context of the recovering. The present project is therefore conceptualised as an integrative study of litho- and biofacial characters by geological mapping of the locality area, multidisciplinary age determination, facies analysis and systematic fossil excavations. Inferred from the regional plate tectonic history the Madygen lake basin represents a rarely preserved upland environment of high northern palaeolatitude situated in the transition zone of the Angaran (Siberia), Cathaysian (SE-Asia) and Euramerican (Europe and North America) floral provinces. It is broadly accepted that major steps in the evolution of terrestrial organisms have been carried out in restricted, high-altitude depositional environments. In that respect the Madygen Formation offers a unique taphonomic window to learn essentials on the development of continental Mesozoic ecosystems and the phylogeny of their biota.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants