Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 86. (Budapest 1994)

Dely, O. Gy.: In commemoration of the centenary of Géza Gyula Fejérváry's birth

their origin in the Palaeoeuropean region or they had migrated from an even more westerly situated, perhaps North American, Holarctic territory to their presently inhabited territories. With this work FEJÉRVÁRY arrived at the front-line of the world's herpetology. This may be the reason why in 1920 on OSBORN's initiative FEJÉRVÁRY was appointed to university instructor at Columbia University in New York. Some years later at NOPCSA's recommendations FEJÉRVÁRY was called upon to apply for the vacant professorship of zoology at Calcutta University. His heart was heavy, but he was not able to accept the promising offers, because he did not want to give up his researches in Central Europe, especially in Hungary. Besides making efforts to solve the Varanus problem, he began to study the origin and development of the herpetofauna recently inhabiting the islands of the Mediterranean. He investigated the morphological characters of the different Lacerta muralis forms in connection with the geomorphological changes which took place at the end of the Quaternary of the Earth. His aim was to elucidate the problem of the speciation of lizards by analyzing the herpetofauna inhabiting the islands lying in the Dinaric and Anatolic seismic zones. In studying the Lacerta muralis material he always had in mind the old problem of Tyrrhenis worked up by FORSYTHMAJOR at the end of the 'eighties of the 18th century. According to this theory the islands Corsica and Sardinia both are the remains of the ancient submerged mainland Tyrrhenis which had formerly reached the Appenin Peninsula. FEJÉRVÁRY 's conclusions about this problem are the same as those of FORSYTH-MAJOR. He is also of the opinion that all of these lizard species migrated from the Italian Peninsula through a land-bridge which connected Italy with Sardinia. But this land-bridge became inundated by the Tertiary sea. The other land-bridge with North Africa existed much longer. In spite of being a herpetologist, FEJÉRVÁRY studied other vertebrates, too. In one of his papers (1922), on the basis of his own investigations as well as data of the literature he discussed the phylogenetic significance of the primary and secondary skin-bones lying on the skulls of fishes, amphibians and some mammals. He made clear that the presence of these skin-bones may serve as evidence for the earlier or later development of the given group. In 1923 FEJÉRVÁRY became a keeper of the herpetological collection of the Museum. From the end of August 1923 till the middle of September he visited the zoological and palaeontological collections of the Munich and Frankfurt/Main museums. In September of the same year he participated with his wife at the congress of the Palaeontologische Gesellschaft held in Vienna. The first lecture of this congress was held by FEJÉRVÁRY with the title: "Die Entstehung des Prähallux und die Cheiropterygium-Theorie im Lichte paläontologisch-ethologischer Forschung". His discussions and Statements attracted much attention in the whole herpetological world. His theory was explained in more detail in his paper published two years later in the Annales of the Hungarian National Museum. On the basis of translucid made preparations from 17 frog species belonging to different genera he showed that contrary to the former theories the praehallux which can be found on the extremities cannot be described as the rest of the cheiropterygium having more (7-10) beams, because the most primitive and most ancient (archaic) batrachians had no sign of this element. The praehallux cannot be explained as the rest of the earlier existed anatomical elements, but as one under the influence of the special living conditions acquired by the organism. The development of this special anatomical element had been evoked by the characteristic leaping movement of frogs. In FEJÉRVÁRY's opinion, the praehallux of frogs cannot be regarded as a rudiment of a formerly functioning sixth toe but as a newly acquired element of the skeletal system which suits the special movement type of the given group of frogs (moving under the ground, on the branches of a tree, leaping among grasses and other plants with soft stem). The special living conditions of a given species influence in a characteristic way the structure of this anatomical element, too. The life conditions, as bionomical factors in LAMARCK'S sense, may be regarded also as morphogenetic ones. On 30th May 1924 FEJÉRVÁRY was habilitated by the Council of the Erzsébet University in Pécs as a private docent on the basis of his lecture held under the title Palaeontological and