Palaeoecological investigations of Upper Pliocene and Quaternary mammalian communities in the Carpathian Basin

Abstract

The principal aims of this article involve the investigation of some ecological parameters of Late Neogene
mammalian communities, this includes following the changes of climate and vegetation in the area on the basis of these
parameters. This study uses mammalian faunal data from 156 layers of 64 Upper Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene
localities from the Carpathian Basin.
Some of the applied methods are based directly on the species composition of mammalian faunas (cluster analysis,
similarity study, longevity studies and investigation of evolutionary lineages). These methods helped in the
documentation of the primary, secondary and tertiary events in the mammalian fauna. The other group of applied
methods consists of taxon-free processes and these are based on the ecological parameters of mammalian species and
communities (body size, trophic preferences, number of species). The distribution of ecotypes in a fauna (ecological
variables) is essentially determined by the climate and vegetation. Ecological variables (distribution of body-size and the
trophic preferences, diversity index) together define the ecological unit which is characteristic to the community. In the
Carpathian Basin 10 ecological units are distinguished and interpreted in the studied period.