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Numerous fossil remains (vertebrates, molluscs and plants) were found in more than twenty sites of the Sütt Travertine Complex during the last 150 years. The majority of these remains were recovered from fissures of the travertine, but also from the travertine and an overlying loess-paleosol sequence. The aims of this study were to review the Sedimentological and OSL data of well-dated layers of the loess-paleosol sequence (Sütt /LPS) at Sütt allowed a correlation with the layers of Sütt 6. The paleosol layer in the upper part of the sequence of Sütt 6, was correlated with a pedocomplex of the overlying loess-paleosol sequence, which was dated to MIS 5c (upper, dark soil) and MIS 5e (lower, reddish brown soil). The paleoecological analysis of the mammal and mollusc faunas supported the former interpretation of Novothny et al., inferring warm, dry climate during the sedimentation of the upper layers, and more humid climate for the lower layers). However, the fauna of the lower soil layer indicated cold climate, so an age of MIS 5d is suggested.Dating of the fissure faunas is based on similarity studies. For some faunas, this method cannot be used, because of the low number of species. On the basis of the species compositions and former interpretations, these faunas originated mainly from sediments that were deposited under cold climatic conditions. Other fissure faunas M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTwere dated by AMS 14 C (Sütt 16), or by correlation with soil layers of Sütt 6.According to these results, most of the fissure faunas can be correlated with different phases of MIS 5. However, there are a younger (MIS 2) and an older (Early-Middle Pleistocene) fissure fauna.

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1.Mammals are a key target group for conservation biology. Insights into the patterns and timing of and driving forces behind their past extinctions help us to understand their present, and to predict and mitigate their future biodiversity loss. Much research has been focused on the intensely debated megafaunal extinctions at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, whereas the Holocene mammal extinctions have remained less studied. 2.Here, we consider the Holocene extinctions of mammal taxa in the Carpathian Basin, a distinctive and biogeographically well-constrained predominantly lowland region in Central Europe. For the first time, we combine data from palaeontological, archaeozoological, and historical sources for a comprehensive analysis. 3. A total of 11 mammal species, including steppe-dwelling rodents, large carnivores and herbivores, disappeared from the Carpathian Basin during the Holocene. The extinctions are interpreted in the framework of changing habitats and ecosystems, as grasslands and open forests vanished at the westernmost limits of the Eurasian steppe. 4. The temporal distribution of extinctions is non-random; most taxon range terminations are concentrated around two discrete events. Members of the steppe community disappeared between 5000 and 4000 BP, around the Copper AgeBronze Age transition. Large herbivores that found refugia in the forests vanished later, between the 16th and 18th centuries AD. The steppe, forest-steppe ecosystems of the Carpathian Basin suffered a considerable loss in their mammalian fauna, which has significant implications for conservation efforts for the existing similar dry, open habitats in western Eurasia. 5. Further research and better age constraints are needed to establish the causes of extinctions more firmly, but the lack of synchronous and severe climate and vegetation changes and the coincidence with transformations in human history suggest the prime role of anthropogenic disturbance. We conclude that there were two waves of Holocene mammal extinctions of megafaunal character in the Carpathian Basin.

In this study, we analysed morphometrically fossil populations of Microtus arvalis and M. agrestis from eight late Middle to Late Pleistocene archaeological and palaeontological sites in the Carpathian Basin, northern Hungary. The intra‐ and interspecific variations in both species can be related to climatic oscillations linked to the onset of the Eemian interglacial and the first phases of Marine Isotope Stage 5. The size of M. agrestis can be correlated with the presence/absence of relatively humid climatic and environmental conditions and of surface water resources (such as marshes and flooded areas). A possible immigration event of M. arvalis populations into the Carpathian Basin, also related to the Eemian interglacial, is also identified.