The Madygen Geopark – Exploring 500 Million Years of Evolution in a Single Day
From Formation to Geopark
First described in the early 20th century, the fossil-rich Middle Triassic Madygen Formation contributed to our understanding of ancient life and ecosystems in a major way. Extensive research was conducted in the 1960s and 1970s by Soviet paleontologists but with the collapse of the USSR, the region fell into scientific obscurity. Renewed efforts by German and other international scientists in the 2000s and 2020s have reawakened interest in the area’s geological and paleontological wealth. Now under consideration as the first UNESCO Global Geopark in Central Asia, we aim to further investigate, protect and recognise this stratotypic locality and the treasures it bears.
Southwestern Kyrgyzstan
Located in the very heart of Central Asia, the Madygen Geopark is situated between the Fergana Basin in the North and the Alai Mountain Range in the South. Set in a semi-arid steppe, the tectonically complex landscape creates a vivid, multicolored low-mountain scenery that is easily accessible. Owing to its nearly uninterrupted stratigraphic record from the Cambrian to the present, 500 Million years of Earth‘s history can be walked in a single day.
Next Expedition: August 2026
Despite its profound scientific value, Madygen remains relatively underexplored and underrepresented in global paleontological research. Bringing together professional scientists, early-career researchers and students, while colaborating in an international team has always been the focus in our expeditions. Next year‘s main aims are completing the geological mapping, logging several profiles and unearthing fossils across various geological times.
30000 fossils
500 fossil insect species
12 endemic vertebrates
…are only some of the superlatives that have been excavated from the Madygen Formation alone. Strange tetrapods such as Longisquama and Sharovipteryx, different fishes, diverse invertebrates, and countless plant remains can be unearthed from the lacustrine sedimentary rocks. Further fossil-rich sites from other periods are abundant in close proximity within the geopark area.
The Paleogene…
sands and clays were deposited in the shallow waters of the eastern Paratethys. The countless fossil shells of large oysters, teeth of sharks and rays, and the shells of microorganisms give insights into paleogeography and paleoecology (Winkler et al., 2024; Trubin et al., 2025).
The Cretaceous…
strikingly red sediments represent a time of change from fully terrestrial to marginal marine conditions. The only signs of macrobiotic activity are large fossil burrows of decapod origin, providing further paleoenvironmental and climatological information at the system‘s lower and upper boundary (Winkler et al., 2025).
The Jurassic….
and Upper Triassic fluviolacustrine sediments are rich in color, fossil plants and insects. Several ichnotaxa are abundant, including trails of fish and xiphosurians, while the most prominent traces were produced by fairly large notostracans (Brosig et al., 2025).
The Triassic…
lacustrine sedimentary rocks of the Madygen Formation yield a uniquely well preserved Central Asian ecosystem, inclduing an extremely diverse flora and entomofauna. Freshwater sharks laid their egg capsules into the dense underwater vegetation along the lake shore, at which fish, tetrapods and insects thrived.
The Carboniferous…
is composed of several thousand meters thick continental margin sediments recording the closure of the Turkestan Ocean. Tempestite layers yield a still unstudied gastropod fauna. Additionally, kilometer-sized blocks of a late Middle Paleozoic carbonate platform were emplaced by gravity slides into this sequence.
The Cambrian…
can be studied in „Sauk Tanga“, a small outcrop within the geopark where bituminous coquinoid limestones contain an outstandingly diverse macrofauna. This early Middle cambrian assemblage includes trilobites, early molluscs, brachiopods and stem-group cnidarians from the Turkestan Ocean (Geyer et al., 2014).
References:
Brosig, A., Kogan, I., Winkler, A. 2025. An arthropoda-dominated trace fossil assemblage from the Upper Triassic of the Madygen Geopark, Kyrgyzstan [Conference Presentation] 96th Annual Meeting Paläontologische Gesellschaft / Geo4Göttingen 2025, Göttingen (Germany).
Brosig, A. 2025. Integrating 60 years of paleontological research: A new geologic map of the Madygen Geopark, Kyrgyzstan. [Conference Presentation] 96th Annual Meeting Paläontologische Gesellschaft / Geo4Göttingen 2025, Göttingen (Germany)
Geyer, G., Peel, J. S., Streng, M., Voigt, S., Fischer, J., Preuße, M. 2014. A remarkable Amgan (Middle Cambruan, Stage 5) fauna from the Sauk Tanga, Madygen region, Kyrgyzstan. Bulletin of Geosciences (89): 2.https://doi.org/10.3140/bull.geosci.1434
Trubin, Y. S., Winkler, A., Kogan, I., Brosig, A., Zhang, J., Yasuhara, M., Tian, S. Y., Marinov, V. A., Langer, M. R. 2025. New insights into the middle Eocene environmental conditions and biostratigraphic setting of the Fergana Basin (Central Asia): Micropaleontological approaches. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences (288): 106613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2025.106613
Voigt, S., Buchwitz, M., Fischer, J., Kogan, I., Moisan, P., Schneider, J.W., Spindler, F., Brosig, A., Preuße, M., Scholze, F., Linnemann, U., 2017. Triassic life in an inland lake basin of the warm-temperate biome – the Madygen Lagerstätte (southwest Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia). In: Fraser, N.C., Suess, H.-D. (Eds.) Conservation Lagerstätten – Windows into the Evolution of Life on Land. Dunedin, Edinburgh, 65-104. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.12638994.6
Winkler, A., et al. 2024. Stratigraphy and Paleoecology of the Paleogene in the Madygen Geopark (SW-Kyrgyzstan), 95. ann. meeting Paläontologische Gesellschaft, Warsaw (Poland).
Winkler, A., Brosig, A., Trubin, S. Y., Kogan, I., Rust, J. 2025. Exceptionally Large Fossil Burrows fFrom Cretaceous Deposits in the Madygen Geopark (Southern Fergana Basin, SW Kyrgyzstan) [conference presentation] 96th Annual Meeting Paläontologische Gesellschaft / Geo4Göttingen 2025, Göttingen (Germany).
