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

10 J. Ptîlfy is of great historical and scientific value. Although types of seven of his species are lost, the preserved material, including the original nummulite preparations of his award-winning collection in unmistakable green cells, represents unique value. The fate of the somewhat younger and less significant foraminiter collection of FRANZENAU is much less fortunate, with only three types remaining and 28 lost. The work of three outstanding figures of 20 century Hungarian vertebrate paleontology - KORMOS, KRETZOI and JÁNOSSY - is nearly equally well represented in the type collection. Together they form the most sought after and frequently consulted part of our vertebrate collection. An emblematic figure of Hungarian geology, L. LÓCZY described an interesting suite of Paleozoic fossils from China, collected during a pioneer expedition of Count B. SZÉCHENYI in East Asia (LÓCZY 1899). Although this material was supposedly deposited in the HNM, currently nothing is known of its fate and whereabouts, thus presumed lost. The opposite is true for the classical shark tooth collection of NEUGEBOREN (1850, 1851) from Transylvania, which was assumed to have vanished but a significant part turned up in the HNHM when we scrutinized the little known parts of the collection in search of types. The monographs ofGÉCZY, devoted to the diverse Jurassic ammonoid faunas from the Bakony Mts., report 10 primary types deposited in the HNHM. In fact these are now in the GIH collection, together with the other holotypes from his works. Our museum only possesses paratypes of two of these and eight other taxa. SZALAI is one of only three paleontologists (beside GAAL and KRETZOI), who described both new vertebrate and invertebrate taxa from our collection. Apart from his better known turtles, he also named some Tertiary molluscs and crinoids. Our list of "top 20" authors also includes two recently retired colleagues from the HNHM; during their long career TOPÁL described several new fossil bat taxa, whereas KECSKEMÉTl's work focused on Eocene larger foraminifers. A dozen new taxa of Triassic megalodontid bivalve are the legacy of E. VÉGH-NEUBRANDT (deceased in 2008), former professor of the Eötvös University, who generously donated her entire fossil collection to HNHM. The paleontological literature, in which the invertebrate and vertebrate taxa represented by types originally or subsequently deposited in the HNHM collection were introduced, consists of more than 250 items and spans 167 years. The oldest work dates back to 1841 in which COQUAND describes new Cretaceous aptychus species from the French Alps. The latest publication considered in the catalogue appeared in February 2008. Of course the type collection continues to grow; already several new taxa with types in our collection have been published since the catalogue was completed. The temporal distribution of types according to the year of description is analyzed using a histogram with decadal bins (Fig. 3). During the peak period of classical monographic works in the late 19

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h century and at the turn of the century, most of the paleontological material from the historical Hungarian territories was deposited in the geological surveys, the GIH in Budapest and the Geologische Reichsanstalt in Vienna. The HNHM's role was relatively subordinate at that time. The largest peak in our collection occurs in the middle part of the 20

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1 century, from the 1930's through the 1960's. The leading figures of these activities are NOSZKY and CSEPREGHY-MEZNERICS. From the 1970's, research directions have diversified and the emphasis has partly shifted away from descriptive work to biostratigraphy, paleoecology, and paleobiogeography. Currently there is again a renewed interest in taxonomic paleontology and monographic works, partly explained by the focus on understanding the diversity history of important clades of fossil organisms. Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 101, 2009