Palaeobotanical Collection

General introduction:

First of all fossil plant remains collected in Hungary are deposited at the collection, however, foreign countries are well represented with fossil, as well. The latter provides famous specimens from monographies of European reputation published during the 19th century. Most of them arrived at our museum by means of buying of the famous Lobkowitz collection. The oldest inventory was taken as far back as 1860 documenting even a considerable collection. The first fossil specimens arrived at the collection as early as 1850.
From the monographies listed below more than 600 type and original specimens are in the possession of our collection. A Catalogue comprising the type and original specimens published in the 19th century is going to be published shortly:

Unger, F. 1841-1847. Chloris protogaea. Beiträge zur Flora der Vorvelt 1-10: 1-149.

Unger, F. 1850. Genera et species plantarum fossilium. Vindobonae, 627 pp.

Unger, F. 1852. Iconographia plantarum fossilium. Denkschr. Akad. Wiss., math.-naturw. Kl. 4:73-118.

Kováts, Gy. 1856. Fossile Flora von Erdőbénye. - Arbeiten der geologischen Gesellschaft für Ungarn. 1-37.

Kováts, Gy. 1856. Fossile Flora von Tállya. - Arbeiten der geologischen Gesellschaft für Ungarn. 39-78.

Unger, F. 1861, 1864, 1866. Sylloge plantarum fossilium I-III. - Denkschr. Akad. Wiss., math.-naturw. Kl. I. 19:1-48, II. 22:1-36, III. 25: 1-76.

Ettingshausen, C. 1866, 1868-69: Die fossile Flora des Tertiärsbeckens von Bilin I-III. - Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. math.-nat. Cl., Wien, I: 1-98, II: 1-54, III: 1-110.

Unger, F. 1870. Die fossile Flora von Szántó in Ungarn. - Sitz. math.-nat. 30: 1-20.

Saporta, G. et Marion, A. F. 1870: Recherches sur les végétaux fossiles de Meximieux.- Arch. Mus. Hist. nat. Lyon, 1: 131-335.

The Hungarian localities are completely represented at our collection. In addition there are numerous collections of various dimensions first of all from Central Europe, and from the southeastern part of Europe. Totally 463 sites of 23 countries are represented at our collection with famous classical localities among which Sotzka, Häring, Radoboj, Sagor, Bilin, Anina, Sekul are noteworthy.
Among the fossils specimens from as early as the Devonian representing the early land plants till the youngest Quaternary with modern plants are to be found. The number of specimens entered individually in the inventory is more than 28000. The Hungarian Tertiary localities (mainly Oligocene and Miocene) have provided the greatest number of specimens since most of the Hungarian sites are from the Tertiary. In addition to the leaf remains providing most of the fossils numerous winged fruits, silicified wood and oogoniums of Chara are to be mentioned in the collection.

Famous persons, collections:

The first Hungarian palaeobotanist, Gyula Kováts (1815-1873), worked here and the first Hungarian collections are due to his work. Later during the 1950ies and 60ies the large scale development of the collection is linked with the name of Gábor Andreánszky and Klára Rásky who carried out their enormous work in a cooperation with other geologists and collectors. Most of the material of their monographies are deposited at our collection, as well as, the palaeobotanical collection of János Tuzson, a famous Professor on botany. In addition to the well known authors Pax provided also a collection of plant fossils from the Quaternary. During the last 25 years the collection has been developed considerably by Lilla Hably with fossils (about 6000 specimens) from Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene sites.

Inventory order:

The collection is obliged to enter the specimens individually in the inventory.

Searching possibility:

At the moment specimens are documented conventionally on index-cards by their inventory number, their latin species names, and sites, however an electronic data processing, a database, is in progress, namely up to now 34% of the specimens has been put into the computer.

Accessibility:

The collection can be used for research purposes according to the rules and regulations of the museum. The previous consent of the curator is needed.

Number of specimens:

37,000 specimens at the end of 2009.

Type and original materials:

In addition to the more than 600 type and original specimens from the 19th century, more than 1000 type and original specimens from the 20th century can be found at the collection. The Catalogue published earlier comprises only a small part of it: Hably, L. & Szakály, M. (1989): The Catalogue of Leaf-Fossil Types Preserved in Hungary. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 253 pp. The material from the 19th century mentioned earlier is going to be published - hopefully this year but not later than the beginning of 2001 - by Hably, L., Erdei, B. & Kvaček, Z. in a monography titled: 19th century's original and type material from the Hungarian Natural History Museum. The type and original specimens published during the 20th century can be found easily in the collection based on the index-cards.

Curator of collection, museologists of collection, preparator:

The curator of the collection is Dr. Hably Lilla, PhD, a doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. One should appeal to her in the cases of visit, loan or exchange. Detailed information about the Tertiary and Jurassic collections is given by Erdei Boglárka, PhD and Barbacka Mária PhD, respectively.