B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 30-31. 1999-2000 (Budapest, 2000)

Rákosi, László; Barbacka, Mária: Upper Cretaceous flora from Ajka (W Hungary). I. Thallophyta

Part of the fruit and seed material was examined by KNOBLOCH (1981, 1985, 1986) and KNOBLOCH and MAI (1986). They were the first who provided a detailed account of the palaeocarpological investigations in the region, but the material used for their studies came from boreholes different from those recently examined by us. CELLÁI and TÓTH (1982) examined the genus Munieria from Sümeg-Gyepükaján, while CSÁSZÁR and BODROGI (1985) completed a detailed study of the distribution and ecology of this genus in Hungary. As the material from the region of Ajka originates from boreholes (excluding fusain remains), and the opening of new bores are not prospected in the near future, the collected remains seem to be the only palaeobotanical representatives of the Upper Cretaceous in Hungary. The authors have resumed the interrupted examinations within the following groups: 1 - Thallophyta megaspores, 2 - seeds and fruits, 3 - leaves, 4 - fusained woods. The present paper deals with material from the first group. MATERIAL AND METHODS The investigated material consists of 378 samples collected from 11 boreholes in the region of Ajka (Fig. 1): 1 - Gyepükaján - borehole No 9; 24 samples from 590.4-455.0 m (Gy-9) 2 - Gyepükaján - borehole No 12; 30 samples from 545,9-452.0 m (Gy-12) 3 - Gyepükaján - borehole No 15; 1 sample from 496.6 m (Gy-15) 4 - Csabrendek - borehole No 2; 39 samples from 672.5-551.8 m (Cr-2) 5 - Káptalanfa - borehole No 1 ; 48 samples from 728.2-618.6 m (Kf-1) 6 - Káptalanfa - borehole No. 2; 29 samples from 811.0-696.0 m (Kf-2) 7 - Káptalanfa - borehole No. 6; 23 samples from 655.4-550.8 m (Kf-6) 8 - Nemeshany - borehole No 1 ; 64 samples from 683.8-634.4 m (Nh-1) 9 - Ajka - Ármin shaft, 164 samples (A-181) 10 - Magyarpolány - borehole No 42; 15 samples from 723.9-645,7 m (Mp-42) 11 - Somlóvásárhely - borehole No 1,61 samples from 1437.3-1292.0 m (Sv1 ) Plant remains larger than 200 um were used for examination. Material was obtained in the usual way by désintégration of matrix in HCl and washing, followed by treatment with H

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2 and selection. The cleaned specimens were then stored in water containing phenol. The preservation of the material allowed examination in SEM (a SEM of JEOL-35 type was used). Unfortunately, in many cases the material was polluted by small pyrite crystals which were very difficult to remove.