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

研究的目标是重建早中生代淡水湖及其邻近生境的沉积环境、生物和生物-生物相互作用。根据20世纪60年代的发现，三叠纪马迪根组以丰富多样的化石群落而闻名世界，其中包括滑行的四足动物，具有特殊的软组织保存。然而，几乎没有关于恢复的地质和古环境背景的事实。因此，本项目被构想为通过对当地地区进行地质测绘、多学科年龄确定、相分析和系统的化石发掘，对岩石和生物面貌特征进行综合研究。从区域板块构造史推断，马迪根湖盆代表了位于安加拉(西伯利亚)、华夏(东南亚)和欧美(欧洲和北美)植物区系过渡带的北部高纬度高原环境。人们普遍认为，陆地生物进化的主要步骤是在受限的高海拔沉积环境中进行的。在这方面，马迪根组提供了一个独特的挖掘学窗口，以了解大陆中生代生态系统的发展及其生物群系统发展的基本情况。

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.