László Kordos

• Professor
• Professor at Eötvös Loránd University

The scientific achievements of Mottl Mária, born in Budapest in 1906 and renown as first fully experienced female Quaternary researcher and vertebrate palaeontologist of Hungary, who - after her evacuation with her barely two-year-old daughter from the embattled capital in 1944 - worked for the Styrian State Museum "Joanneum" in Graz until 1975, co...

NOW ( New and Old Worlds ) is a global database of fossil mammal occurrences, currently containing around 68,000 locality-species entries. The database spans the last 66 million years, with its primary focus on the last 23 million years. Whereas the database contains records from all continents, the main focus and coverage of the database historica...

The Pliocene and Early Pleistocene three-toed horses of Western Eurasia (Caucasus, Anatolia, Balkans, Eastern and Central Europe, Italian and Iberian Peninsulas and England) have been studied since the second half of the 19th Century, leading to different interpretations of their taxonomy and evolution. Herein we provide a revision of the taxa from...

A slab with three tetradactyl avian footprints was excavated from the Agha Jari Formation (Mio-Pliocene) in the Zagros Mountains, southwest Iran, in the early last century and named as Urmiornis abeli. The name Urmiornis had been used for the didactyl bird fossil and ichnogenus name was later revised to Iranipeda. Validity of Iranipeda abeli has be...

During Earth’s history, geosphere-biosphere interactions were often determined by momentary, catastrophic changes such as large explosive volcanic eruptions. The Miocene ignimbrite flare-up in the Pannonian Basin, which is located along a complex convergent plate boundary between Europe and Africa, provides a superb example of this interaction. In...

The Pliocene and Early Pleistocene three-toed horses of Western Eurasia (Caucasus, Anatolia, Balkans, Eastern and Central Europe, Italian and Iberian peninsulae and England) have been studied since the second half of the 19th Century, with the following taxa identified from several fossiliferous sites: “Hipparion” crassum, “Hipparion” rocinantis, “...

The study is an updated summary of the paleontological values of the caves in Hungary in the light of sedimentologic and taphonomic conditions. The localities discussed in chronological order contain their locations, history of excavation, important sedimentologic and taphonomic characteristics, typical paleontologic and/or archaeologic remains, th...

The late Miocene (Vallesian, Lower Pannonian, MN9 Zone) lacustrine and swampy sediments of Rudabánya contain a large sample of one beaver taxon, Trogontherium minutum (Meyer 1838). The study of this material included an analysis of discrete morphology and metric variation, as well as age categories. Beavers are abundant at Rudabánya, especially in...

From the marsh and lake sediments remaining in the former iron ore mine of Rudabánya 10 million years ago, since 1969, the researchers have uncovered hundreds of bones of the world-famous, early apes (Rudapithecus, Anapithecus) that characterize the early stages of becoming human. The extremely rich plant and ancient animal finds have allowed the a...

We record the first fossil bats from the Middle Miocene non-karstic marshy-lagoonal deposits at Hasznos, northern Hungary. The bat material consists of mandible fragments of Miostrellus cf. petersbuchensis and Myotis bavaricus, the vespertilionid species until now recorded only from the Miocene sites of Germany. The discovery suggests an extensive...

The classic locality of Hasznos (Middle Miocene, Mid Badenian, Hungary) has yielded a diverse assemblage of insectivores that is dominated by Erinaceidae and Soricidae, with three species each. The Talpidae are represented by one species, Desmanodon aff. crocheti. Prior to this record of D. crocheti in Hasznos, this species has only been recorded i...

Numerous fossil remains (vertebrates, molluscs and plants) were found in more than twenty sites of the Süttő Travertine Complex during the last 150 years. The majority of these remains were recovered from fissures of the travertine, but also from the travertine and an overlying loess–paleosol sequence. The aims of this study were to review the foss...

Rudabánya is rare among Eurasian Miocene fossil primate localities in preserving both a hominid and pliopithecoid, and as such provides the unique opportunity to reconstruct the nature of sympatry and niche partitioning in these taxa. Rudapithecus and Anapithecus have similar locomotor and positional behavior and overlapping body mass ranges. While...

Molecular phylogeography suggests that Micromys minutus, the sole extant species of the genus, colonized its extensive range quite recently, during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene period. Rich Pliocene and Pleistocene fossil records both from Europe and China suggest rather continuous and gradual in situ phenotype rearrangements from the Pliocene to...

The non-metrical and basic metrical characteristics of studied samples of Micromys in comparison to available literary data. Part 1: M1 and M2, Part 2: m1 and m2. (MicromysS2table.xls file) (XLSX)

List of the European fossil records of Micromys. (DOCX)

Our understanding of locomotor evolution in anthropoid primates has been limited to those taxa for which good postcranial fossil material and appropriate modern analogues are available. We report the results of an analysis of semicircular canal size variation in 16 fossil anthropoid species dating from the Late Eocene to the Late Miocene, and use t...

The Csajág mammoths were discovered during road construction work in June 2006. The skeletal remains are well preserved in an Upper Pleistocene loess deposit. This revealed the skeletons were an adult female woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) of estimated age 24–25 years, largely complete except for the skull; and the partial skeleton of a juve...

In 1871, Darwin famously opined, "In each great region of the world the living mammals are closely related to the extinct species of the same region. It is therefore probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee; and as these two species are now man's nearest allies, it is somewhat more pro...

In response to environmental changes in the Northern hemisphere, several lines of brachyodont-bunodont cricetid rodents evolved during the Late Miocene as "micro-toid cricetids." Major evolutionary trends include increase in the height of cheek tooth crowns and development of prismatic molars. Derived from a possible Megacricetodon or Democricetodo...

The Geological Atlas of Hungary on a scale of 1: 200 000 was published by the Geological Institute of Hungary. This publication is unique among the maps and related monographs available in Hungary. The cartographic depiction of the geological composition of Hungary has already proved its scientific value to professional geologists, to scientists wo...

Look the detailed English resume at the end of the paper.

The environment of the hominoid Dryopithecus brancoi at Rudabánya (Late Miocene of Hungary) is reconstructed here using the dietary traits of fossil ruminants and equids. Two independent approaches, dental micro- and meso-wear analyses, are applied to a sample of 73 specimens representing three ruminants: Miotragocerus sp. (Bovidae), Lucentia aff....

Abundant Early Miocene mammal and bird tracks and a rich plant assemblage is preserved by the emplacement of an ignimbrite sheet of the Gyulakeszi Rhyolite Tuff Formation (GRTF) near Ipolytarnóc in northern Hungary. The tuff that overlies the track-bearing sandstone yielded a single-crystal zircon U–Pb total isochron age of 17.42 ± 0.04 Ma and a si...

Magnetic polarity records from four wells and four surface outcrops from the non-marine Upper Miocene of the northwestern Pannonian Basin System have been correlated with the polarity time scale. Correlation between the wells (Duka-II, Nagylózs-1, Szombathely-II, and Zsira-1) was established by means of seven seismic horizons (A to G), calibrated b...

The sample of Anapithecus from Rudabánya, Hungary, is remarkable in preserving a large number of immature individuals. We used perikymata counts, measurements of root length and cuspal enamel thickness, and observations of the sequence of tooth germs that cross match specific developmental stages in Anapithecus to construct the first composite pict...

Anomalomys rudabanyensis KORDOS, 1989 belongs to the Anomalomys gaudryi-rudabanyensis-petteri lineage. The genus Anomalomys is possibly a descendant of a small species of Eumyarion. Early Miocene species of Anomalomys, notably A. aliveriensis and A. minor, are primitive representatives of the group. Anomalomys cf. rudabanyensis has been reported fr...

A Late Eemian (Marine Isotope Stage 5d) vertebrate fauna was excavated in Horváti-lik (Horváti Hole) at Uppony, NE Hungary, in 1977 and 1978. After the preliminary reports, the authors identified the whole fauna of the 25 layers of the small cave. Following the faunistical and cluster analysis, the 410 cm long profile is divided into three units: t...

Research on the evolution of higher intelligence rarely combines data from fields as diverse as paleontology and psychology. In this volume we seek to do just that, synthesizing the approaches of hominoid cognition, psychology, language studies, ecology, evolution, paleoecology and systematics toward an understanding of great ape intelligence. Lead...

Rudabánya is a rich late Miocene fossil locality first exploited for its vertebrate remains by Pethö in 1902. The first fossil primate was discovered by the local Chief Mining Geologist, Gabor Hernyák. Professor Miklos Kretzoi made Rudabánya famous in 1969 by publishing a manuscript on the new hominoid primate, Rudapithecus hungaricus, recognized h...

Rudabánya, a rich late Miocene fossil site in northern central Hungary, has yielded an abundant record of fossil primates, including the primitive catarrhine Anapithecus and the early great ape Dryopithecus. While the affinities of Anapithecus are not clear, Dryopithecus is clearly a great ape sharing numerous characteristics of its dental, cranial...

Although the territory of Hungary is rich in Eocene sea cow remains, there are only few among the sporadic finds that hold significant systematic value. Because several new taxa have been described from the area in the past and new discoveries shed light on some important phylogenetic lineages, the author has attempted a revision of the most import...

Fossil primates have been known from the late Miocene locality of Rudabánya since 1965. Numerous campaigns of collecting, sampling and excavation have been carried out since that time by several teams of researchers, but the sample of primates has never been fully catalogued and published. Here we provide a comprehensive list of all primate specime...

Within the dynamic tectonic realm of the Carpathian Basin five succesive primate first appearance events has documented: Griphopithecus darwini and Pliopithecus (ca. 15 M years), Dryopithecus carinthiacus (ca. 12.5 M years), Dryopithecus brancoi (= Rudapithecus hungaricus) and Anapithecus hernyaki (ca. 10 M years), Mesopithecus pentelici (between 8...

Das Unter-Miozän beim Dorf Ipolytarnóc in Nord-Ungarn ist seit der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts bekannt. Die Sediment-Serie vom Typ der zentralen Paratethys enthält den Übergang von marinen zu terrestrischen Verhältnissen — eine reiche, spektakuläre Sammlung von Hai-Zähnen, verkieselte Baumstämme, Pflanzen-Abdrücke und Fussspuren von Landtier...

Sümeg is a late Vallesian (MN10) karst-fissure locality situated about 60 kilometers north of the western end of Lake Balaton. We update the biochronologic ranking of critical late Miocene (MN9-MN12) Hungarian localities below based on the stage-of-evolution of murid, cricetid and anomalomyid lineages in order to securely place Sümeg's chronologic...

Rudabánya is 10 million-year-old Hungarian locality, which has yielded abundant remains of eucatatthine primates (Dryopithecus, Anapithecus), and is rich in plant remains molluscs and a wide range of vertebrates. The fossiliferous layers were discovered more than 50 years ago, and the first Primates were found in 1967. During the past 5 years, an i...

A newly reconstructed cranium (RUD 77) of the Miocene fossil hominoid Dryopithecus, formerly Rudapithecus (Kretzoi [1969] Symp. Biol. Hung. 9:3-11; Begun and Kordos [1993] J. Hum. Evol. 25:271-286) is presented here. This specimen, from the late Miocene locality of Rudabánya, in northeastern Hungary, consists of portions of the neurocranium, face,...

Dryopithecus provides a good case history illustrating the disagreement and confusion over Miocene hominoid systematics described in the introduction to this volume. Dryopithecus is currently known from well-preserved maxilla and other portions of the cranium, from larger numbers of isolated teeth, and from well-preserved postcrania, mostly from Hu...

The goal of this paper is to clarify the taxonomic relationship among dryopithecine specimens from central Europe, and in particular, from the Hungarian locality of Rudabánya. To this end, Dryopithecus brancoi, a valid nomen given to a single M3 from Salmendingen (Schlosser, 1901), is compared to all other Dryopithecus M3 specimens (from France, Sp...

D. Jánossy, 1986. Pleistocene Vertebrate Faunas of Hungary. Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, Vol. 8, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 205 pp., Dfl. 225.00.

Az Anomalomyidae család (Rodentia, Mammalia) magyarországi leletei közül a tanulmány az MN 3—11 zónába tartozó korúak rendszertani leírását es sztratigráfiai eredményeit tartalmazza. Ennek során 8 lelőhelyről 6 taxont lehetett kimutatni Anomalomys minor, A. gaudryi, A. rudabanyensis n. sp. , A. (Miospalax) kowalsku n. sp. , A. gaillardi, Allospalax...

The various fossiliferous localities at Polgárdi are described. One of them has yielded a very rich material of a new species of hamsters, Cricetus polgardiensis. The phylogenetical relationships of the Polgárdi hamsters are discussed.

Having revised some reference vertebrate faunas from Hungary and from Central Europe their biostratigraphic positions could be determined more accurately. By extending the vole thermometer method to the continental parts of Central Europe fairly well identifiable average July temperature curves could be obtained for the Upper Pleistocene. The main...

Environmental development and the hierarchy of the interactions generated by the general warming period which started some 18 000-20 000 years BP are shown. -Author

The thermoanalytical Derivatograph (MOM) applied so far was coupled with a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS-ATOMKI) and, thus, thermal gas analysis (QMS-EGA) can also be performed as well as the analyses of thermoanalytical curves (DTA, DTG and TG). The results suggest that the new analytical technique is more successful in dating, strata identifi...

One of two publications produced by the INQUA Hungarian National Committee on the occasion of the 12th INQUA Congress in Ottawa, 1987. The 12 papers (abstracted in various parts of Geographical and Geological Abstracts) describe palaeoenvironmental changes in Hungary and give information on the palaeogeographical and ecological prehistory of the Ca...

The present study is part of a taxonomical and stratigraphic revision that aims at a better knowledge of the Neogene mammalian fauna of the Carpathian Basin. As a result, disregarding the ambiguous comparison with the finds originating from greater distances, the author describes the succession of the local Cricetidae. The study deals with 16 speci...

Six morphotypes can be distinguished among stony endocarp finds of Hungarian and some SE-European fossil Celtis species originating from a period of 10 million years' duration (Lower Pannonian to Upper Pleistocene). They are called "pill, sphere, pillow, torpedo, oval and macro" types. The surface pattern of a stony endocarp has five basic layers,...