Relatively sparsely found fossil vertebrate remains have been collected with variable
intensity from the Upper Oligocene sand beds of Máriahalom during the last twenty-five
years. Recent fieldworks and the obtaining of a private collection have provided good
opportunity for a preliminary study of this diverse fauna for the first time. Currently
hundreds of isolated specimens are housed at the Natural History Museum of the Eötvös
University and so far 26 different taxa have been determined. The Máriahalom fauna
consists of both shallow marine and terrestrial elements as demonstrated by the remains
of various shark genera, myliobatoid rays, bony fishes, turtles, an anguid squamate,
crocodylians, birds, anthracotheriid and ruminant artiodactyls and primitive ursid
and mustelid carnivorans. The various habitat preferences of these forms and the accumulation
of their remains in the same beds might reflect a transportation process by intense
sea currents which is consistent with the sedimentological interpretation of the strata.
Apparently Máriahalom is a significant vertebrate site, as Late Oligocene reptiles,
birds and large terrestrial mammals have been extremely poorly known from eastern
Europe. Concerning the mammals, Máriahalom shows considerable affinities with Late
Oligocene faunas in Western Europe.
