Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 101. (Budapest 2009)
Pálfy, J.: Review of invertebrate and vertebrate paleontological types in the collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum
8 J. P tîlfy Budapest, as these important historical collections contain previously unrecognized type specimens. The PG-HNHiM collection grew and reached its present state through more than two centuries of hard collecting and scientific work, during an often turbulent history. A multi-year project to build a database culminated in the publication of the comprehensive type catalogue. Although the listing itself is the key product of this effort, the dataset deserves a closer look from different aspects and more complex evaluation, which are attempted here. ESSENTIAL NUMBERS ABOUT THE TYPE COLLECTION The type catalogue of PÁLFY et al. (2008) records a total of 2,017 inventory lots, which contain primary or secondary type specimens in the collection of PG-HNHM. Types of 1,181 fossil species-group taxa are listed in the catalogue, of them 986 are invertebrates and 195 are vertebrates. Considering their taxonomic rank, 872 are at the species level and 309 are subspecies. A total of 1,132 taxa have or should have name-bearing primary types in our collection (including a replica of a holotype). An additional 49 taxa are represented by their secondary type(s) only. Discounting the specimens that are missing, lost or have been transferred to other institutions, the catalogue includes primary types of 919 taxa available in the collection. When both primary and secondary types are considered, 963 taxa have existing type specimens whereas types of another 218 taxa have been missing or are permanently lost. These essential indicators are shown in Fig. 1. 986 195 invertebrates vertebrates 872 309 species subspecies 1,132 49 primary types secondary types 963 218 extant 1 1 1 1 1 1 • ~i 1— lost 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100% Fig. 1. Essential data of paleontological types in the collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 101, 2009
