ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER – new discoveries in the fossil fauna of Karatau!
“Jurassic Lake Karatau” is the world’s largest Jurassic insect locality, located on the northeastern slope of the Karatau range, at the border of Zhambyl and Turkestan regions. It is one of the few places on Earth where exceptionally thin-bedded rocks, known as “paper” or “fish” shales, preserve remains of animals and plants that lived about 160 million years ago. More than 800 species of Mesozoic insects are known from here, along with unique finds of pterosaurs, amphibians, and fishes that inhabited Kazakhstan during the age of dinosaurs.