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
12 J.Pálfy DISTRIBUTION OF TYPES BY TAXONOMIC GROUPS The department's holdings are divided into two main parts: the collection of invertebrates and vertebrates. In total there are more than 72,000 invertebrate and close to 19,000 vertebrate inventory lots. Type specimens thus represent approximately 1.4% of the registered invertebrate and 1% of the vertebrate specimen lots. The invertebrate part of the type catalogue, within primary chapters by geologic age, is arranged secondarily by taxonomic subdivisions. We use the following, well-known and well-represented groups, arbitrarily taken from higher taxa at the phylum, class, or order level: Radiolaria, Foraminiferida, Anthozoa, Polyplacophora, Bivalvia, Scaphopoda, Gastropoda, Cephalopoda, Annelida, Brachiopoda, Trilobita, Ostracoda, Cirripedia, Decapoda, Crinoidea, Ophiuroidea, Echinoidea. The catalogue of vertebrate types is arranged by higher taxa only, containing subdivisions for "Pisces", Reptilia, Aves, and Mammalia. The obsolete category of Pisces is used here for historical reasons to include taxa from Chondrichthyes and Actinopterygii. Fig. 4 shows the distribution of types (in terms of number of species represented) among the different higher taxonomic groups. They are arranged in sequence from protists to mammals. Clearly, the main strength of the invertebrate collection is the molluscs, in particular the gastropods and bivalves. (This may explain the tradition that the prefix of our invertebrate inventory numbers is M, for molluscs, rather than I, to match the V prefix in the vertebrate collection.) Four out of the six most prolific taxon authors devoted their careers to malacology. The vertebrate collection is dominated by mammals, and the majority of the 141 mammal taxa in the type collection bear the legacy of three great Quaternary vertebrate paleontologists of the 20 T H century, KORMOS, KRETZOI and JÁNOSSY. Foraminifera is fourth in the ranking, owing to a long tradition of research in the museum, starting with HANTKEN in the late 19 t h century, through contemporary work of KECSKEMÉTI, followed most recently by OZSVÁRT. The more than 1 00 decapod taxa originate largely from the lifetime contribution of MÜLLER, complemented by a few taxa by his early 20 T H century predecessors. By contrast, radiolarian studies had no precursors in the HNHM prior to the collaborative work of KOZUR, OZSVÁRT and colleagues, which results in a dynamically growing number of new types in this microfossil group. Another four groups are represented by 20 to 50 taxa in the type collection: corals, cephalopods, brachiopods, and bony and cartilaginous fish combined. DISTRIBUTION OF TYPES BY GEOLOGIC PERIODS The breakdown of taxa by age in the type collection (Fig. 5) to some extent reflects the areal distribution of fossiliferous bedrock in Hungary. Thus the overwhelming majority of taxa are Cenozoic in age, followed by a more modest number of Mesozoic taxa, whereas the entire Paleozoic is underrepresented. The predominance of the Oligocene within the Cenozoic is explained by the "monograph effect", mainly of NosZKY's work. The Pliocene and Pleistocene comprise mainly vertebrate taxa. Should the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary be lowered by a pending decision of the International Stratigraphie Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 101, 2009
