Raymond L. Bernor *, Craig Feibel **& Suvi Viranta *
*College of Medicine, Department of Anatomy, Laboratory of
Evolutionary Biology,
Howard University, Washington D.C.
**Departments of Anthropology and Geology, Rutgers University,
New Brunswick, N.J. 08901-1414,
Abstract - Hatvan is a medial Turolian fossil vertebrate locality situated 60 km east of Budapest. The fauna and its geological context was initially reported by Gaal (1943 a, b). The Evolution of Central Paratethys (Hungary) Miocene Vertebrate Communities Project has had the specific aim of rediscovering and evaluating classical Middle and Late Miocene Hungarian continental mammal faunas. Hatvan was one of the sites rediscovered by this project. We provide here a report on the location, geologic context and mammalian content of the Hatvan fauna. Comparisons with other European - Southwest Asian mammal faunas suggests an MN12 correlation. Our evaluation further suggests a provincial character to the Hatvan fauna with some classical Pikermian elements having succeeded in colonizing the Pannonian Basin. There is further evidence of a biogeographic connection between medial Turolian Pannonian Basin faunas and the V3 faunas of the Baccinello mammal horizons in Tuscany (Italy). This connection is believed to have occurred immediately succeeding the relaxation of endemism in the Tusco-Sardinian Bioprovince. Ecologically, Hatvan would appear to have had a mixed forested-open woodland character that did not support the diverse open country megafaunas typical of the roughly contemporaneous faunas of Samos (Greece) and Upper Maragheh (Iran).