An Early Pleistocene vertebrate and mollusc fauna from Dreveník (northern Slovakia), with remarks on the early/late Biharian transition

Pages	43–59
DOI	10.37520/fi.2025.004
Keywords	early/late Biharian, vertebrates, molluscs, biostratigraphy, paleoenvironment, Microtus
Citation	HORÁČEK, Ivan, DUBJELOVÁ, Nikoleta, JUŘIČKOVÁ, Lucie, TRÁVNÍČKOVÁ, Eva, PAŽITKOVÁ, Barbora, IVANOV, Martin a ČERMÁK, Stanislav. An Early Pleistocene vertebrate and mollusc fauna from Dreveník (northern Slovakia), with remarks on the early/late Biharian transition. Fossil Imprint / Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae, Series B – Historia Naturalis. Prague: National Museum, 2025, 81(1-2), 43–59. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37520/fi.2025.004. ISSN 2533-4050 (tisk), 2533-4069 (online). Also available from: https://www.nm.cz/en/periodicals/fossil-imprint-acta-musei-nationalis-pragae-series-b-historia-naturalis/81-1-2/an-early-pleistocene-vertebrate-and-mollusc-fauna-from-drevenik-northern-slovakia-with-remarks-on-the-early-late-biharian-transition

Fossil Imprint / Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae, Series B – Historia Naturalis | 2025/81/1-2

The first abundant vertebrate and mollusc fauna from a travertine complex Dreveník (northern Slovakia) is preliminarily reported. The greatly diversified community of small mammals (580 MNI, 38 spp.) is characterized by the simultaneous appearance of elements otherwise restricted to the earliest Biharian stage (such as Petenyia, Pitymimomys pitymyoides), those related to the late Biharian clades (Mimomys savini, Cricetus c. runtonenesis), and the typical elements of the late early Biharian (such as Pliomys episcopalis, Mimomys pusillus, Pliomys hollitzeri, including a derived form of Pliomys coronensis). A rich assemblage of early Microtus (s. l.) clade exhibiting an extreme phenotype diversity covering a broad spectrum of diverse transitional morphotypes is compared with the situation in other European sites of assumed age along the early/late Biharian transition. The common biostratigraphic characteristics of these sites and the stratigraphic setting of the transitional period between the early and late Biharian (Q 1 and Q 2 zones in terms of Horáček and Ložek 1988) are discussed. The record of non-mammalian vertebrates and particularly the molluscs assemblage (2,452 MNI, 51 spp.), supposedly the richest reported for that stage in Europe, further supplement the report with detailed paleoenvironmental reconstructions.

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