Vörös A. szerk.: Fragmenta Mineralogica Et Palaentologica 10. 1981. (Budapest, 1981)

FRAGMENTA MINERALOGICA ET PALAEONTOLOGICA 10. 1981 p. 97-106 The skulls of Mammoth in Hungary By I. VÖRÖS (Received November 30, 1980) Abstract: The author reviews the localities and finds of mammoth skulls in Hungary. The description of find was based partly on the literature, partly on the skulls and skullfragments in the collections of museums. The paper includes also the C

14 dates of three localities of mammoth skulls. From the large mammals lived during the Late Pleistocene the remains of the MammuthuB primigenius (Blumenbach, 1799) have came to light from most localities and in the greatest quantity in Hungary (VÖRÖS 1974). Because of their sizes remainB of mammoths draw the collectors' attention much rather than those of other large mammal species of smaller size incidentally found at the same locality. Thus mammoth finds get into the collections of museums in a great quantity and the museums usually make several rescue excavations annually in site where new finds have been reported

. In Hungary there are 535 stray finds of the pleistocene large mammals from which 373 (70%) include also the mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) (JÁNOSSY & VÖRÖS 1979). According to an earlier investigation 1547 pieces of Elephantidae finds came to light from the Carpathian Basin of which 908 pieces (58%) represent the head-region (VÖRÖS 1974): About half of the mammoth finds (46%) consists of molars or fragments of molars which are highly resistant. The numbers gained by the new data of finds also corroborate this observation. The number of mammoth skull finds in Hungary - although outnumbers the pieces registered in the Carpathian Basin in 1974 - is small; 23 skulls or skull fragments of several Individuals are known from 21 localities (5.6%, Fig. 1). The localities of the skull fragments are Hatvan, Mende and Tata. In the list of skull finds only those localities are recorded where either Intact or broken skulls were found containing always the brain case. The cause of this restriction is not an anatomical one, It is necessary first of all from the point of view of the localization of the taphonomic place. The mammoth skull does not resiBt to long distance transport and/or rolling by water. If the skull is washed away from the autochthonous locality the maxilla and praemaxllla usually break off the large sized hollowed neurocranlum because of the ponderosity of the teeth and tusks. The alveolar bones are usually broken off from the teeth and the tusks and become disintegrated. Pieces skull, skull fr. maxilla, maxilla fr. tusk, tusk fr. mandibula, mandibula fr. molar, molar fr. 14 8 117 55 714 908