Radovan Pipík

Neogene and Quaternary development of the Turiec Basin and landscape in its catchment: a tentative mass balance model

Neogene and Quaternary development of the Turiec Basin and landscape in its catchment: a tentative mass balance model The development of the Turiec Basin and landscape evolution in its catchment has been reconstructed by methods of geological research (structural geology, sedimentology, paleoecology, and geochronological data) as well as by geophysics and geomorphology. The basin and its surrounding mountains were a subject of a mass balance study during periods of tectonic activity, accompanied by considerable altitudinal differentiation of relief and also during quiet periods, characterized by a development of planation surfaces in the mountains. The coarse clastic alluvial fans deposited beneath the offshore pelitic sediments document the rapid Middle Miocene uplift of mountains on the margin of the Turiec Basin. The Late Miocene finegrained sedimentation represents the main fill of this basin and its origin was associated with the formation of planation surfaces in the surrounding mountains. The rapid uplift of the western and northern parts of the catchment area during the latest Miocene and Early Pliocene times further generated the deposition of coarse-grained alluvial fans. The Late Pliocene basin inversion, due to uplift of the whole Western Carpathians mountain chain, was associated with the formation of the Early Quaternary pediment and ultimately with the formation of the Turiec river terrace systems.

Early Badenian ostracod assemblage of the Židlochovice stratotype(Carpathian Foredeep, Czech Republic)

Fifty-two ostracod taxa were identified from two sediment cores collected from the early Badenian Židlochovice stratotype. Ostracod assemblages were analyzed with a focus on taxonomy, paleoecology, distribution of taxa along the sediment cores, quantification of valve/carapace ratios, and species richness by Simpson’s Reciprocal Index. The changes in ostracod assemblages identified in these cores reflect a shallowing of the marine water-depth from circalittoral/epibathyal to shallow infralittoral, and an increase in the sedimentation rate upwards through time. A comparison of all Badenian ostracod assemblages in the Carpathian Foredeep indicates a high proportion of deep-water ostracod species in Židlochovice and its surroundings, suggesting that the deepest part of the Carpathian Foredeep was probably situated in this part of the Czech Republic.

Paleofloristic and paleofaunistic analysis of Dudváh River oxbow and implication for Late Holocene paleoenvironmental development of the Žitný ostrov Island (SW Slovakia)

Paleofloristic and paleofaunistic analysis of Dudváh River oxbow and implication for Late Holocene paleoenvironmental development of the Žitný ostrov Island (SW Slovakia) Žitný ostrov, the largest island of the Danube River (SW Slovakia) gained its present shape in the Neoholocene period. As a result of increased flood and geomorphological Danube river activity dated to 1378-1528 AD, the Lower Dudváh River was abandoned and its alluvium became a part of the Žitný ostrov. Study of a Dudváh terrestrialized paleomeander by means of pollen and macrofossil analysis provides new information about the paleoenvironments of the Danubian Plain. The meander under study was cut-off during the Sub-Boreal period when the land was mostly covered by oak-dominated mixed forest with a notable high frequency of Fagus and Abies. In low-lying depressions, Alnus glutinosa formed typical alder carrs. The largest decline of the mixed forest occurred during the Sub-Atlantic period. Until the mid-19th century the region was strongly influenced by shallow groundwater and periodical floods, as reflected by pollen of aquatics and marsh species. Amongst non-arboreal taxa, pollen of Cyperaceae, Brassicaceae/Cuscuta, Poaceae and Apiaceae prevailed. Local successional changes started with i) stage of abandoned oxbow still with influx of moving water, poor in both macrophytes and molluscs, ii) shallow eutrophic oxbow lake with slowly flowing or stagnant water overgrown with aquatics (Ranunculus subgen. Batrachium, Potamogeton sp., Ceratophyllum demersum etc.) and abundant molluscs, iii) an open marsh dominated by Cyperaceae (mainly Carex riparia) with Atriplex prostrata, supporting diverse molluscan and Ostracod fauna. Present-day habitat is a result of landscape changes, which have been associated with draining, intensified agriculture, ruderalisation and spread of invasive species.

Upper Miocene endemic lacustrine gastropod fauna of the Turiec Basin: addressing taxonomic, paleobiogeographic and stratigraphic issues

Abstract The present work displays the first detailed taxonomic study on the freshwater gastropod fauna of the Upper Miocene Lake Turiec. Apart from several mentions of species and genus names in the literature, the mollusc fauna has been poorly studied up to now. Some of the cited genera implied peculiar paleobiogeographic relationships, urging a taxonomic investigation to either prove or revise such arising claims. Variable degrees of preservation, however, limited the possibility to identify all the fossils at species level. The fauna includes at least ten species, of which five turned out to be new to science. Four of those were sufficiently well preserved to be described as new species, namely Viviparus pipiki Neubauer & Harzhauser nov. sp., Melanopsis glaubrechti Neubauer & Harzhauser nov. sp., Tournouerina turiecensis Neubauer & Harzhauser nov. sp., and Radix kovaci Neubauer & Harzhauser nov. sp. Additionally, the new genus Popovicia Neubauer & Harzhauser nov. gen. is introduced for the primary homonym Metohia Popović, 1964 non Absolon, 1927. Most importantly, this taxonomic study revises many of the names cited in the literature and proves most of the alleged paleobiogeographic relationships wrong. The only biogeographic and stratigraphic surprise is the record of Popovicia cf. compressa, a species described from lower Pliocene deposits of the Metohia Basin in Kosovo. The majority of the fauna, however, has only been documented for the Turiec Basin, once more confirming the high degree of its endemicity. The faunal relationships indicate a latest Middle to early Late Pannonian (Middle to Late Tortonian) age, which is in agreement with available age models.

Miocene “Hungarocypris” species of Lake Pannon (Central and South-Eastern Europe) transferred toHerpetocyprellaDaday, 1909 (Ostracoda, Cyprididae)

The genusHungarocyprisVávra, 1906 is known in Europe by a unique species,Hungarocypris madarászi (Örley, 1886). Its morphological characteristics are briefly reviewed and compared with those ofHerpetocyprella mongolicaDaday, 1909 from Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan. Two cypridoidean species,Hungarocypris auriculata (Reuss, 1850) andHungarocypris hieroglyphica (Méhes, 1907) from Upper Miocene deposits of Lake Pannon (Central and South-Eastern Europe), are compared toH. Madarászi. Morphological traits of the fossil species point to close phylogenetical affinities withH. mongolica, and therefore transferred toHerpetocyprella Daday, 1909.H. auriculata is described, based on material from the Vienna Basin, the Eisenstadt-Sopron Basin and from the Styria Basin (Austria). Further, this species is compared toH. hieroglyphica from Banat (Romania). The morphological variability of the former species is presented. Palaeobiogeographical and palaeoecological implications are briefly emphasized.

Abundant assemblage of Ostracoda (Crustacea) in Mexican Miocene amber sheds light on the evolution of the brackish-water tribe Thalassocypridini

Abstract Amber inclusions of fully aquatic animals are rare, most of them isolated specimens of water-bound insect larvae. In contrast, we here describe an ample, speciose fauna of 262 fully aquatic individuals of Ostracoda (Crustacea) from Mexican amber of Early Miocene age. This fauna was trapped whilst under water swimming around trunks of resin-producing trees in a brackish lagoon. Ostracod crustaceans are typically around a millimeter in length, and are known for their mostly well-calcified bivalved carapaces that account for their unparalleled fossil record in arthropods. However, in the Chiapas amber we found representatives of the tribe Thalassocypridini, which are characterised by lightly calcified carapaces and therefore lack a substantial fossil record. Embedded in amber, this ‘drawback’ becomes a clear benefit because the unobstructed view onto the appendages otherwise hidden in the carapace allowed us to identify nine ostracod species, six of them new to science. The exceptional number of individuals permitted insights into population composition, reproduction, taphonomy and into micro-environmental parameters of the amber’s place of formation. Based on ecological data available for Recent Thalassocypridini species, we posit that this tribe reached a peak radiation in open lagoonal settings during the Miocene, and shifted towards anchialine environments by the Recent. http://zoobank.org/lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3C93A06B-F86B-404F-985D-139897F97EF3

The Neogene Mediterranean origin of Cyprideis torosa (Jones, 1850)

Although Cyprideis torosa is one of the most studied ostracods, its ecophenotypic variability has always impeded a clear definition of its carapace morphology. As a consequence, it is often difficult to identify this species in fossil material and very little is known about its phylogenetic origin. In this paper, we attempt to answer two main questions: when and from what species did C. torosa originate? To reach this goal we first analysed living and Recent populations of C. torosa collected from different salinity environments to define its variability. We found that the valve outline, the size of rounded normal sieve pores and the percentage width of the anterior inner lamella seem to vary independently of salinity. Secondly, to look for possible ancestors we analysed several Neogene species and found that Cyprideis sp. from the mid-Serravallian of Spain could possibly be the common ancestor of the Late Miocene Mediterranean and Lake Pannon lineages and that C. torosa is strictly linked to the Mediterranean stock, particularly to the phyletic lineage C. ruggierii–C. crotonensis. In this framework Cyprideis gr. torosa originated in the late Tortonian and C. torosa s.s. is thought to have been differentiated from C. crotonensis at the beginning of the Calabrian. Supplementary material: biometric tables and the list of the examined material is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3636170.v1

Relict chironomid communities surviving in the coldest High Tatra Mountain lakes confirmed by a palaeolimnological survey

Abstract The climatically most extreme lakes in the High Tatra Mountains are populated with species-poor chironomid communities dominated by Micropsectra radialis and Pseudodiamesa nivosa. Based on paleolimnological studies from other parts of Europe this community had been hypothesized to be a relict of the Late Glacial period, however, this assumption has not been proved in the Tatras. A paleolimnological survey of a subalpine Tatra lake demonstrated that this community was indeed occupying lakes located even in relatively low altitudes as long as they were glacially influenced, i.e., until the early Holocene. Due to the restricted distribution and specific ecological requirements of the species creating this relict community, it is extremely prone to extinction.

Identifying white spots on the roadmap of Late Pleistocene and Holocene palaeolimnology in Slovakia: Review and future directions

Abstract Paleolimnological research in the territory of Slovakia has relatively short history with the beginning in the 1990s primarily as a response to the ecological changes in mountain lakes due to air pollution and missing data from the pre-industrial period as well as a need to quantify anthropic impact on the landscape. In the present paper, we reviewed 53 publications, including research papers, monographs, conference abstracts and theses, dealing with aquatic proxies in Holocene lake sediments to identify (1) the location of surveyed sites, (2) proxies used, and (3) the object of the paleolimnological reconstructions. The vast majority (37) of the analysed paleolimnological localities (51) took place in the High Tatra Mountains, focusing on the alpine lakes of glacial origin. The most frequently used biological proxy was Chironomidae remains (44%). In contrast, Cladocera, Ostracoda, loss-on-ignition, molluscs and stable isotopes were used only in 10–12% of studies. Most studies (84%) focused on a simple ecological reconstruction of the past environment, and only 24% of the studies attempted to reconstruct specific ecological variables, properties and processes, such as acidification (10%), temperature (8%) and eutrophication (4%). Only 2% of the studies used molecular techniques. Sixteen out of the 51 cores analysed (i.e., 31%) were dated by radiometric methods. In the end of our review we pinpoint the weaknesses of the local paleolimnological research and sketch possible future directions.

Pannonian ostracods from the southwestern Transylvanian Basin

Pannonian (Late Miocene) ostracods were investigated from 7 outcrops, exposing deep-water lacustrine sediments along the western margin of the Transylvanian Basin. Sedimentological patterns in the outcrops indicate deposition in sublittoral to profundal environments where fine-grained, suspension fall-out sediments are intercalated with various types of mass transport deposits, most commonly turbidites. The ostracod fauna, consisting of 30 taxa, is dominated by endemic species of the brackish Lake Pannon. The assemblages indicate a mixture of deep-water (sublittoral to profundal) species, such as Paratethyan Candoninae, and shallow-water (littoral) species, belonging to Cyprideis, Loxoconcha, Amnicythere and Hemicytheria. The mixed character of the assemblages is most probably a consequence of the reworking of littoral specimens into deeper environments, a phenomenon also observed in the molluscan fauna from some of the investigated outcrops. Alternatively, some endemic and extinct species of the littoral genera might have adapted to the deep-water environment. A significant decrease in the abundance and diversity of ostracods from west to east is interpreted reflecting increasingly distal environments. The ostracod fauna indicates the Hemicytheria hungarica (2 outcrops), Hemicytheria tenuistriata (3 outcrops), and Propontoniella candeo Zones (2 outcrops) of the lower Pannonian Slavonian Substage.