Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 79. (Budapest 1987)

Kecskeméti, T.: Contributions to the phylogenetic connections of Nummulites species

TV. subtilis maior and TV. kopeki are forms of limited geographic distribution, being usually isolated. They are regarded as collaterally developed local taxa differentiated as a result of particular paleoenvironmental circumstances. TV. biarritzensis is followed on a direct line by TV. striatus, a form of wide and geographic range. It appeared in Late Lutetian time, but its range extended well into the Late Eocene. Its phylogenetic importance is due to the fact that the early stage of its development was characterized by a marked evolutionary plasticity. The fact is that partly biarritzensis itself and partly its immediate predecessor gave rise to parallel development of a number of striate or punctate or striate-punctate (striatopunctulate) taxa. Of these, the members of the striate TV. pulchellus- and of the striatopunculate TV. garnieri group are significant. The downward phylogenetic connections of detail of TV. pulchellus are unclear. All the author knows of is that the early Late Eocene witnessed the appearance of a few striatuscharacters reflecting a higher level of evolution. Provided with gradually more loosely coiled spire with the passing of time, TV. pulchellus got suddely extinct in final Late Eocene time. The downward connections of the TV. garnieri group are also unclear. Of its two Upper Lutetian taxa it is TV. praegamieri that seems to have been more able to develop and to have served as the source for an evolutionary lineage, as suggested by its characteristic features. The prograding of the diagnostic features of the group (time-dependent increase in diameter of shell and megalosphere and in chamber height, especially in the marginal area) produces a praegamieri

—garnieri — garnieri inaequalislineage. TV. garnieri appears in Late Eocene time, prospering unchanged for a considerable length of time. Eventually, in the second half of the Late Eocene, its characters are destabilized and, after additional differentiation, the species will grade into TV. garnieri inaequalis, a form provided with operculinoid chambers. The process of this transformation was explored by HERB & HEKEL in the course of quantitative analyses that might serve as a model for studies of this kind (HERB & HEKEL 1973). TV. garnieri sturi is a local taxon of little area of distribution having chambers that arc less tall as compared to the type. Having run at an aerly stage onto a collateral line, it may be regarded as an evolutionary "dead-end". The typical TV. striatus is accompanied along collateral lines, during the Late Lutetian, by several subspecies that may have got differentiated synchronously with TV. striatus. Of these subspecies, TV. striatus minor is one of wide area, while TV. striatus pannonicus and TV. striatus inflatus are known, regardless of the Hungarian occurrences, from just a few localities. The stratigraphie ranges of the subspecies are virtually overlapping. Regarding its characters, TV. beaumonti also belongs to the striatus group. Its conservative morphological features are suggestive of an evolutionary stiffness. It is regarded as a "deadending" lineage that got dissociated, simultaneously with TV. striatus, from TV. biarritzensis. A completely independent lineage within the striatus group is represented by the very poorly studied TV. praelucasi (Upper Ilerdian) — TV. apertus (Lower Lutetian) lineage which may ov/e its assignation to this group to TV. praelucasVs loose kinship to TV. praecursor, the stock of the groups originating from TV. deserti. N. anomalus

—stellatus group The main feature of the species of the TV. anomalus — stellatus group is their having strongly curved septa — the main criterion of their assignation to one group. The origin of the included taxa is obscure. They are figured as rootless in all phylogenetic schemes ever proposed as yet. Scientists are uncertain even as to which of the three ancestors they may derive from. NEMKOV (1967) suggested that deserti had been the source. BLONDEAU (1972) placed its members between TV. fraasi and TV. deserti. Some footing for the second approach is provided by that fact that their septal spacing is somewhat similar to that of the members of