Giant salamander from the Miocene of the Mecsek mountains (P\xe9cs-Danitzpuszta, southwestern Hungary)

Abstract

The Late Miocene fossil locality Pécs-Danitzpuszta (Mecsek Mts., Hungary) has yielded cranial and postcranial bones of giant salamanders. Based on taxonomical studies, these relatively well-preserved, isolated bones belong to the cryptobranchid species Andrias scheuchzeri. Whereas the species is well documented from Neogene of Central Europe, this is the first record of the genus Andrias from Hungary, representing the sole record of giant salamanders from the country. The fossils were found in Upper Miocene sands deposited in the brackish Lake Pannon, but their late Miocene age is uncertain, because they occur together with vertebrate remains reworked from older sediments. The mild and humid climate and the presence of freshwater wetlands on the mainland indicated by the fossil flora, the syn-depositional uplift of the mountains providing for a rugged topography, and the intense clastic sediment input into Lake Pannon indicative of a fluvial network on the Mecsek Island and of sufficient precipitation support that conditions were convenient for the giant salamanders in the early late Miocene. Together with three other late Miocene localities in Austria, the Pécs-Danitzpuszta site is the fourth Miocene occurrence of Andrias in the Pannonian Basin System. It resembles the first three localities in lying at the foot of elevated terrain and in having freshwater input, conditions thought to be necessary for giant salamander habitats.