Szabó János szerk.: Fragmenta Mineralogica Et Palaentologica 24-25. 2007. (Budapest, 2007)

FRAGMENTA PALAEONTOLOGICA HUNGARICA 24-25, BUDAPEST, 2007 Dénes JÁNOSSY (1926-2005) by Mihály GASPARIK Prof. Dr. Dénes JÁNOSSY was one of the most prominent scientists of the Hungarian and the international Quaternary and Pliocene vertebrate palaeontology. It is a deep regret to all of us that he could not celebrate his 80th birthday. After a long and serious disease he died on 16

th of August 2005. He was born in Budapest as the son of Margit BOROS and Dr. Dénes JÁNOSSY on 24

lh of March 1926. His father was corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the former director of the Hungarian National Archives. From his early childhood, the young Dénes JÁNOSSY was interested in natural sciences and first of all in palaeontology. He started his studies in Budapest at the Pázmány Péter University (now Eötvös Loránd University) in 1945. In 1949 he graduated in natural history — chemistry and afterwards in geology. He got his first job in the Hungarian Natural History Museum as a preparator in 1946. From 1951 he was employed here as a museologist. He worked in the Department of Geolog}' and Palaeontology of the HNHM altogether 50 years because after his retirement, from 1986 to 1996, he worked here as honorary director. During these 50 years he was director of the Department from 1970 to 1986 and, besides, he gave lectures for geologist and archaeologist students at the Eötvös Loránd University for several years. His all-round and charismatic personality

7 is well illustrated by the fact that he was member of several Hungarian and international societies, e.g. Hungarian Geological Society, Hungarian Speleological Society, where he was president between 1966 and 1980. Among the numerous memberships perhaps the greatest pride of his life was to be the founder president of the Hungarian Ornithological Association of which he was president between 1974 and 1990, and honorary president from 1990 until his death. In recognition of his work in the field of ornithology

7 and protection of birds he won the "Pro Natura" prize in 1995. Regarding Dénes JÁNOSSY's scientific activity

7 in palaeontology, his research field is well outlined: Pliocene and Pleistocene mammals (mainly micromammals) and fossil birds. He collaborated with László VÉRTES on archaeological excavations in the fifties and he worked on Late Pleistocene and Holocene vertebrate faunas. The most significant was the description of the fauna from the Lambrecht Kálmán Cave (Bükk Mts, NE Hungary

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). He described the so-called "Hystrix horizon" and the "Varboian" faunal substage. In 1962 he defended his Ph.D. thesis on "The Late Pleistocene vertebrate fauna of the Lambrecht Kálmán Cave and the problems of the Riss/Würm interglacial". In the late fifties and in the beginning of the sixties he worked on several other Early Pleistocene mammal faunas (for example Petényi Cave, Subalyuk Cave etc.), but later he started to take interest in the Middle Pleistocene vertebrate faunas. This time interval and its fauna were hardly known even in the international Quaternary vertebrate palaeontology. He performed excavations in NE Hungary, in the Bükk Mts (Kövesvárad, Tarkő rock shelter) and in the Uppony Mts (Uppony rock shelter N° 1). Among these collections the most significant was the elaboration of the fauna from the Tarkő rock shelter, because he described several new species, among others lMgurus transient (a primitive steppe lemming species), which became a very important index fossil in the early part of the Middle Pleistocene. In 1968 he got the D. Sc. degree with his work: "Stratigraphie studies on the Middle Pleistocene vertebrate faunas of Europe". During the late sixties and mostly in the seventies several excavations were carried out by him on the Osztramos (Esztramos) Hill in NE Hungary. From the karstic fissures a very rich vertebrate material was collected. The more than 20 localities represent a period extending from the Middle Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene. On the basis of the faunas Dénes JÁNOSSY described the "Tornaian" faunal substage and he proposed the fauna of the locality N° 7 of Osztramos to be considered as the key to the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary faunas. From the locality Ne 3 he described a ver}

7 strange and special new rodent, Estramomys simplex. Dénes JÁNOSSY carried out his last excavations in South Hungary in the Villány Mts from the middle of seventies to the middle of eighties. From the classical localities as Beremend, Csarnóta, Villány and Nagyharsányhegy very rich and important vertebrate faunas have been described by PETÉNYI, MÉHELY, KORMOS and KRETZOI. Dénes JÁNOSSY made excavations mainly at Villány (locality? N° 4), at Beremend (locality

7 no. 11, 15, 16, 17) and on Somssich-hegy. At the locality

7 of Somssich-hegy 2 he carried out excavations for several years, and separated the collected faunas into more than 40 levels. Beside what was mentioned above, he took part in working up fossil collections from some foreign (mostly