L. Forró szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 12. 1998 (Budapest, 1998)

Dely, O. Gy.: In commemoration of Mrs. Baron Géza Fejérváry, Dr. Aranka Mária Lángh (1898-1988)

rans". In this study, published both in Hungarian and German, she provided details of her osteological examinations on members of seven families of frogs. Contrary to Boulenger, who was at that time considered the major expert in herpetology, she found that not only species of the family Discoglossidae, but "sämtliche Anuren weisen Rippen auf, der Unterschied liegt bloß darin, inwiefern die Rippen in den einzelnen Gruppen ihren ursprünglichen, selbständigen Character bewahrt haben" (p. 128). On the third day following her first presentation at the Zoological Section (8 October 1917), she married Géza Gyula Fejérváry, in the meantime appointed to the rank of assistant curator, in the "Fasori Evangélikus Templom" (= Fasor Lutheran Church). Two years later, in 1919, she made her doctoral (summa cum laude) examination in palaeontology (major), and geology and cosmology, and as such, she was the first "doctor of palaeontology". At this time, "palaeontology as a major subject" ... "was only offered at a few universities in Europe". At least this is what was made known to the author by the academician Dr. Elemér Vadász, then professor of the Geological Department, in a letter dated 2 October 1969. Between 1920 and 1922, she gave birth to two children (son Zsolt and daughter Aranka). The joy of childbirth was associated with newer and newer professional recognitions. In 1921 she published two papers in the Viennese "Verhandlungen". One contained her observations on the biology, ethology and ecology of five European brown frogs (Rana fuscae), the other dealt with hybrids of the clawed frog species Xenopus calcaratus and X. muelleri. The latter were also the subject of her second scientific presentation at the Zoological Section held on February 4

th

. In the same year, on 27 August she was given the rank of museum curator, and a year later, on 14 October 1922 she was actually appointed to museum curator. In January 1923, she held her third speech at the previously mentioned Zoological Section with the title "The occurrence of Molge cristata Laur. subsp. Karelini Strauch in Baranya County". In this she discussed a juvenile specimen collected in the vicinity of Baranyavár that showed a strong resemblance to the southern subspecies of the Crested Newt in great detail. Its taxonomic position was, however, only clarified a few months later in the museum's Annales. In the university year 1922-23, besides taking care of her two small children, she studied medicine at the Erzsébet University, Pécs, at that time functioning (located) in Budapest. Between 22 and 29 September 1923, together with her husband, she participated at the congress of the "Palaeontologische Gesellschaft" held in Vienna. And, also in the year 1923, her magnum opus, a nearly 100 pages long work, which only partly encompassed her thesis, entitled "Beiträge zu einer Monographie der fossilen Ophisaurier" was published in the first volume of Palaeontologia Hungarica. After her doctoral examinations, she incorporated the results of newer investigations, five beautifully illustrated plates and 43 figures, before submitting this work for publication. The valuable results of this study cannot be discussed in detail here. However, the exhausting historical and critical review of the fossil and Recent slender glass lizard (Ophisaurus) species, and the careful description of the skull bones, the cervical and caudal vertebrae, and the ribs and osteoderms should definitely be mentioned, plus her statement made on the basis of her studies that the existence of only two well-established Ophisaurus species can be substantiated: the geologically older Ophisaurus moguntinus Boettger and its direct descendant, Ophisaurus pannonicus Kormos, which was, according to her, the ancestor of the Recent Ophisaurus apus (Pallas) (currently valid name Ophisaurus apodus [Pallas]). She wrote: "Durch die Feststellung dieser Tatsache ist also unsere phyletische Wissenschaft um die Kenntnis einer euthygenetischen Reihe reicher geworden" ... "als relativ sehr wenige handgreiflich nachweisbare Ahnenreihen bekannt sind". Her apparently well-founded assump-