Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 89. (Budapest 1997)

Erdei, B. ; Kvaček, Z.: A newly recovered collection of the Early Miocene flora of Kymi (Greece) previously misinterpreted as the Upper Miocene flora of Tállya (NE Hungary)

provides some species which have been unknown to date in the Tertiary floras of Hungary. 2. In order to obtain more exact information about the age of the flora, associated ostracods were studied. It has turned out that the clayey marl contains a quite special and exotic fauna of ostracods which is not characteristic of the Hungarian region (KORECZ, pers. comm.). 3. Only the year of the collection, 1875, without the name of the exact locality was stated on the labels of the fossils. RÁSKY concluded that the remains were collected but not studied by KOVÁTS in the last century. However, in 1875 (indicated as the year of the collection), KOVÁTS had already died so he could not collect the fossils. Presumably, the Hungarian Natural History Museum obtained the material from the Natural History Museum in Vienna or bought it directly from Greece in the last century. ANDREÁNSZKY (1959: 23) mentioned the collection in his monograph but hesitated to include it into the Sarmatian floras since the name of the locality was not explicitly stated on the labels. He added that its age would have been much older than the Sarmatian if the locality had been Tállya at all. According to studies carried out on foraminifers (KORECZNÉ LAKY 1976), Lower Badenian layers proved by foraminifers cannot be found in the Tokaj Mountains. The composition of the flora suggests an older age than Early Badenian, namely, Early Miocene. The plant fossils from the Aliveri-Kymi Basin come from strata dated by mammals (KLEIN HOFMEIJER & BRUIJN 1988) as of Early Miocene (Ottnangian) age. Since the Kymi flora from Greece was misinterpreted as a Hungarian one, a correction of this misunderstanding is needed. A revision of the flora of Kymi is being carried out by one of us (Z. KVAÍEK); therefore, we do not publish a detailed taxonomical revision. Only an improved list of the species identified in the Kymi collection (published earlier by RÁSKY as coming from the site of Tállya) is attached below. The following data published by RÁSKY must be corrected: 1. RÁSKY (1958) mentioned on page 183 under the heading "Pflanzen des tonmergelartigen Horizonts" the flora of the layers of clayey marl wrongly as coming from Tállya. These fossils are the representatives of the flora of Kymi. The true flora of Tállya is published on page 184 under the title "Pflanzen des dünnblattrigen und des mergelartigen Horizonts". Accordingly, PI. 16, Figs 1-12 and PI. 17, Figs 1-8 show the specimens of the flora of Kymi. Specimens from Tállya are shown only on PI. 17, Figs 9-11 (fruits of Koelreuterici). 2. RÁSKY (1964) reported Diospyros rugosa SAPORTA from Tállya on page 63, PI. 7, Fig. 3, PI. 12, Fig. 4. These specimens are also the representatives of the Kymi flora. The improved list of the species of the collection from Kymi kept in the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest and published partly by RÁSKY (wrongly as the flora of Tállya) is as follows (RÁSKY did not study all the fossils available for her so additional species have been identified in the collection as well): Pronephrium stiriacum (UNGER, 1847) KNOBLOCH et KVACEK, 1976 Pinus sp. (seed, Cedrela bienensis Hu et CHANEY, 1940 in RÁSKY) Pinus sp. (seed, Canotia tallyana RÁSKY, 1958) (Fig. 4)