The Late Pleistocene microvertebrate fauna of the Vaskapu Cave (North Hungary) and its taphonomical, biostratigraphical and palaeoecological implications

摘要

About 60 years later than the systematic excavation in 1933 carried out by Dr. Mária Mottl and her coworkers,udthe Vaskapu locality in North Hungary was rediscovered by Dr. János Hír. In the following 15udyears, several different field surveys were take place at the site and a rich microvertebrate assemblageudwere found. The aims of the present study were to review the vertebrate fauna (paying particularudattention to the previously poorly studied herpetofauna) and to summarize its taphonomical,udbiostratigraphical and palaeoecological implications. The slightly mixed assemblage with elements ofudthe forest as well as the grassland habitat is interpreted here as the result of a mosaic or quickly shiftingudenvironment left behind a retractive glaciation in the late Würm (namely at the time of the transitionudbetween the Pilisszántóian and Palánkian local biochronological stages around 15 000 years ago).