O. Gy. Dely szerk.: Vertebrata Hungarica 22. (Budapest, 1984)

Topál, Gy. ; Vörös, I.: Notes on history and recent records of elk (Alces alces L.) in Hungary 83-94. o.

at Szentendre (north of Budapest), Medina - south of Budapest to the west of the Danube. One of them crashed with a car at Csillaghegy near Budapest, north of the capital, on 13 September of the same year; the other one was shot dead on a hunting for red deer on 15 September at the village of Gyümölcsény. The Hungarian Natural History Museum could obtain the third animal only, a young cow, which was shot at Ostoros near the township of Eger, on 16 October of 1980. The fourth specimen, again a young bull, was found alive in a channel with concrete walls at Tiszafüred on 18 September, 1981. STUDY MATERIAL For comparison and age determination we used all the specimens in the collections of the Archaeological Department of the Hungarian National Museum and of the Hungarian Natural History Museum as follows. A.D.H.N.M

. 1/ Adult female, Anterior phalanx I. Tiszaluc, Saled-puszta, Hungary, CLXV cut, K 2 level, Middle Copper Age, Hunyadiházi group. D.Z.H.N.H.M. 2/ No 1847/1581. Male, 4.5-6 years old. Skull only

.Northern region of Ural Mts., Russia, winter-spring 1843-1846. Coll. by the Hungarian ethnographer A. REGULY. 3/ No 1847/1582. Female, six months old. Mandible only. Northern region of Ural Mts., Russia. Autumn 1843-1846. Coll. by A. REGULY. 4/ No 120. Male, 5.5-6 years old. Skull, mandible and skeleton. USSR, exact place and date of collection are not known. 5/ No 60.281.1. Male, 4 years and 8 months old (probably born in May-June, 1955). Mounted specimen with skull, mandible and skeleton. Karelian Strait, Territory of Leningrad, USSR. 20 December, 1959. Coll. by N.K. VERESHCHAGIN. 6/ No 60.282.1. Female, 5 years and 6 months old (probably born in May-June, 1954). Mounted specimen with skull, mandible and skeleton. Karelian Strait, Territory of Leningrad, USSR. 2 October, 1959. Coll. by N.K. VERESHCHAGIN. 7/ No 68.47.1. Male, 1 year old (probably born in May-June, 1966). Skull, mandible and skeleton. Budapest Zoo, specimen from the USSR. Died on 21 June, 1967. 8/ No 77.69.1. Male, 9 years old (probably born in May-June, 1967). Skin, skull, mandible and skeleton. Budapest Zoo specimen, originally from the USSR. Died on 14 June, 1976. 9/ No 81.80.1. Female, 2 years and 5 months old (probably born in May, 1978). Skin, skull, mandible and skeleton. Ostoros, near Eger, Hungary. 16 October, 1980. Coll. by Dr.L.

KEREKES. External measurements: head and body 2090 mm, tail 40 mm, hind foot 700 mm, ear 240 mm. Osteometrical description, age determination and comparison of the No 81.80.1 female It Is well known that the dispersing specimens from the territory of a population are commonly young animals. Still, there are few works published on their exact age and the age determination of elk in general. Our attempt to establish the age of our recent specimen resulted some new facts. We found that the sutures of the skull were open and not ossified except suturae interoccipitalla in our No 81.80.1. female. Aboral third of sutura Interfrontale was ossified (Plate I, Figs 1-2). The full dentition consists of permanent teeth. The lower and upper P2 crowns are not yet worn, but the aboral half of crown In upper P3, the tip of crown in upper P4, as well as the aboral parts of crowns In lower P3 and P4 are worn. Among the postcranial skeletal bones studied, distal epiphyses of radius, ulna, metacarpalla, metatarsals, as well as the tuber olecrani and tuber calcanei are not yet fused and not ossified. At the same time the proximal epiphyses of phalangi I are already fully fused. DUERST'

s (1926) work was used when taking measurements for Tables 1-4. The Individual age of our present study specimen was established by the state and wear of its dentition (see Plate I Fig. 2, Plate II Fig. 3; HEPTNER & NASIMOWITSCH 1967), by the degree of fusion of the epiphyses of its long bones (Plate II Figs 4-7), as well as that of phalangi I (IREGREN 1975) and by Its measurements (Table 4), Its age was about two years and five months at the time of its death in October, 1980.