Veres János: A bükkábrányi 8 millió éves mocsárerdő (Múzeumi Mozaik 7. Miskolc, 2007)

of Bükkábrány can be well illustrated yet they remain apart by millions of years from known events like the appearance of the Rudapithecus Hungaricus 10 million years ago. The early men could walk in forests like the remains of which was found at Bükkábrány. Filling in the gaps is one of science's greatest challenge. Similar findings of happy coinsidence along with thorough studies of natural history may help in the process. If we „looked"around in this era we would find extinct animal species from the upper Miocene, subtropical climate and the final shaping of continents. There were mastodons (the ancestors of elephants), sabertooth tigers, marcupials and hornless rhinos. The cypress forest of Bükkábrány was probably situated in shallow seas because a few pre-historic fish species were also found in this region. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE FINDINGS Similar cases of preserved „ancient tree" findings are not unheard of among scientists. At the beginning of the last century erect tree stumps from the Miocene were uncovered at the Senftenberg mine site at Niederlausitz. In Hungary, a „sequoioxylon" stump at the Dorog-Tokod basin was found from the even more ancient Oligoccne-era. At the lignite mine of Visonta tree stumps were also unearthed. What makes the Bükkábrány findings so significant is the number and condition of the trees and the fact that these were all found in their original biotope. We can collect data from a 16-tree forest piece ,,in situ". Fossilized forests were found in large numbers covering hundreds of millions of years. Those findings however do not allow the kind of scientific study and data collection the Bükkábrány swamp forest does. To give an example, this is like finding a swamp preserved corpse having only found small pieces of skulls before.