The analysis showed that the wood had been exposed to fire. According to the researchers, the findings provide evidence of natural wildfires in the Madygen area during the transition between the Ladinian and Carnian ages of the Middle and Late Triassic, approximately 230 million years ago.

At that time, the territory of present-day Kyrgyzstan looked completely different and was located in the mid-northern latitudes of the ancient supercontinent Pangaea. Madygen was an ecosystem of lakes and vegetation, the remains of which were later preserved in sedimentary rocks.

The discovery is particularly significant because the ancient flora of Madygen had previously been known mainly from plant impressions. The charred wood has, for the first time, allowed scientists to examine in greater detail the anatomical structure of trees that grew there during the Triassic period.

The authors also compared the Kyrgyz findings with evidence of ancient wildfires from other parts of the world.

They concluded that fires occurred throughout the Ladinian and Carnian periods, although relatively few records of fire events from this period have so far been found in the global geological record.

The Madygen Formation is considered an important site for Early Mesozoic fossils and allows scientists to reconstruct the natural environment of Central Asia hundreds of millions of years ago.