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
6 J. P tîlfy (PG-HNHM) houses a large number of both invertebrate and vertebrate types. Until recently, no up-to-date and publicly accessible type catalogue existed and our in-house inventory system, based on hand-written books, did not facilitate easy listing and retrieval of type specimens. To better serve the research needs of the Hungarian and international paleontological community, both the publishing of a printed catalogue and developing and maintaining a web-based, searchable database were identified as important goals as we entered into the new millenium. An enduring effort by museum curators and staff, aided by scientists of the Research Group for Paleontology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences-HNHM, led to the recent publication of a printed type catalogue (PÁLFY et al. 2008) which is also available on-line from the HNHM website (www.nhmus.hu). This compilation provides a comprehensive listing of invertebrate and vertebrate paleontological types in the HNHM. It includes type specimens preserved in the collection as well as those types, which are known or believed to be lost or missing, but were attributed in the original publications either to our museum or its ancestral mother institution, the Hungarian National Museum (HNM). The type catalogue itself is largely restricted to presenting the relevant information tor each type specimen. The main purpose of the catalogue is to help making our paleontological heritage more accessible. However, a synoptic review and a multi-faceted assessment of the type collection may also be of interest. Hence the main aim of this paper is to summarize the basic facts about the type collection and to highlight its scientific value by presenting various analyses about the distribution of types according to author, year of description, taxonomic group, geologic age, geographic and stratigraphie origin. The content of the type catalogue is compared with the relevant part of its predecessor, the catalogue of BODA (1964). The losses in the type collection and the effect of known revisions are also considered and some interesting miscellaneous aspects are discussed. Amid growing interest in studies of the history of biodiversity, repositories of paleontological types are increasingly sought to aid taxonomic work. This contribution, through its in-depth analysis and presentation of our type collection, is expected to stimulate ongoing and new descriptive paleontological studies, encourage authors to deposit their type material in the PG-HNHM, and stimulate revisionary taxonomic work on the existing type collection. Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 101, 2009
