Vörös A. szerk.: Fragmenta Mineralogica Et Palaentologica 16. 1993. (Budapest, 1993)

FRAGMENTA MINERALOGICA ET PALAEONTOLOGICA 16. BUDAPEST 1993. p. 89-116 Late Pleistocene gastropod and vertebrate fauna from Tokod (NE Transdanubia, Hungary) by M. GASPARIK Abstract: The Late Pleistocene locality, near Tokod (Gerecse Mountains), was dated by the first excavation (1960) as the lower part of the Würm Glaciation (Tokodian faunal substage). During the next collections (in 1990 and 1991) a new profile was designated by the author, and it was separated in two members of deposits, which contained different snail and vertebrate faunas. The snail material includes 46, the vertebrate fauna at least 61 taxa (micro- and macrovertebrates). On the basis of some typically interglacial species among the micromammals, as Crocidura cf. leucodon, Glis glis, Apodemus sp., Pitymys subterraneus, and by comparing the composition of the fauna with faunas from other localities, the age of the lower layers is Varboian (middle and upper part of the Riss-Wiirm Interglacial) and in the case of the upper layers it is Lower Würm. The present paper comprises the description of the more important species of the fauna and its evaluation from stratigraphical, zoogeographical and climatological aspects. INTRODUCTION The village of Tokod lies about 30 km NW of Budapest in the eastern part of the Gerecse Mts. (Fig. 1). The Late Pleistocene locality is near the village, on the northern slope of the Hegyeskő Hill in a deep ravine ca. 175 m height above sealevel. The remains were found among travertine in sandy loess containing travertine rubbles (Jánossy 1971, p. 103). The travertine layers were deposited by freshwater springs originating from the northern side of the Hegyeskő, consequently the deposits represent a tetarata basin succession (Scheuer & Schweitzer 1979, p. 115, 1988, pp. 34-35). The loessy sediments were deposited at that periods, when the springs did not function. The first collections were carried out in 3-8th June 1960 by Gyula TÖRÖK archeologist (Török 1960, 1960a) and 15-17th September of the same year by Dénes JÁNOSSY paleontologist (Jánossy 1960). They collected especially large mammal remains and microvertebrates of a minimal quantity. Jánossy (1971, p. 108, 1986, pp. 141-142) dated the fauna into the Late Pleistocene Würm Glaciation; Würmi cold substage. Because of the occurrence of large quartzite pebbles and charcoal spots the locality was regarded as an archaeological (Paleolithic) site, however neither the 1960's nor my collections yielded any sure archaeological find. By the last excavation in July of 1992 three small pieces of opal and jasper were found, but these could have been washed in from other, more distant places. After the excavations in 1960 also a radiocarbon dating was made, which established the age of the locality as approximately 36,200 years. The next collections were carried out in July of 1990 and 1991, when the author exploited the deposits bed-by-bed and the whole material was washed through 1 mm mesh size sieve to get also the microfauna.