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