An evolution of the Slovak part of the Danube Basin has started with transtension-extension spreading of the crust [Paleogene(?) to Ottnangian(?), Karpatian, and lower Badenian]. This protostage of the evolution has been an important factor in the further evolution of the basin, but the dominant element, from the viewpoint of the evolution of the Slovak part of the Danube Basin and also its broader surroundings, appears to be the Ulany ridge. This ridge connected (as an interbasinal ridge) the evolution of the Slovak part of the Danube Basin and of the Vienna basin into one dynamic context until the end of the crustal extension phase (lowest Pannonian). In that way, the Ulany ridge controlled the bivergent extension (toward northwest–west and southeast–east) from the north-northeast–south-southwest axis of the ridge uplift. The recent structural inexpressiveness of this ridge is caused by its tectonic unroofing in the crustal extension phase, erosion, and later (upper lower Pannonian to Holocene) thermal collapse in the basin.