Two types of carbonatic cumulate xenoliths occur in alkali basalts of the northern part of the Carpatho-Pannonian region, Central Europe. One is dominated by Ca-Fe-Mg carbonates with randomly distributed bisulphide globules (Fe1+xS2, x = 0–0.1), Mg-Al spinel, augite, rhönite, Ni-Co-rich chalcopyrite, and a Fe(Ni,Fe)2S4 phase. The second, carbonatic pyroxenite xenolith type, is composed of diopside, subordinate fluorapatite, interstitial Fe-Mg carbonates, and accessory K-pargasite, F-Al-rich ferroan phlogopite, Mg-Al spinel, albite and K-feldspar. All accessory minerals occur in ultrapotassic dacite-trachydacite glass in primary silicate melt inclusions in diopside, together with calcio-carbonatite and CO2-N2-CO inclusions. Textural evidence is provided for multiphase fluid-melt immiscibility in both xenolith types. The carbonatic pyroxenite type is inferred to have accumulated from differentiated, volatile-rich, ultrapotassic magma derived by a very low-degree partial melting of strongly metasomatized mantle. Mineral indicators point to a genetic link between the carbonatite xenolith with olivine-fractionated, silica-undersaturated alkalic basalt ponded at the mantle-crust boundary.

The Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx population in the Carpathian Mountains is considered to be one of the best preserved and largest in Europe and hence is a source for past and current reintroduction projects in central Europe. However, its status in Slovakia has been reported to the European Commission on the basis of hunters´ reports and expert estimates that have never been validated by a robust scientific approach. We conducted the first camera-trapping surveys to estimate the density of Eurasian lynx in Slovakia by means of spatial capture–recapture models in two reference areas during 2011–2015. We estimated population density per 100 km2 of suitable lynx habitat (posterior SD) as 0.58 ± SD 0.13 independent individuals (adults and subadults) in the Štiavnica Mountains and 0.81 ± SD 0.29 in Veľká Fatra National Park and surroundings. These are the lowest densities estimated using spatial capture–recapture models so far reported for the species, suggesting the lynx population in Slovakia is below carrying capacity. We suspect that low densities may be attributable to undetected human-caused mortality. Our results imply that official game statistics are substantially overestimated. Moreover, the lynx population in Slovakia may not be at favourable conservation status as required by the EU Habitats Directive. We therefore call for a thorough assessment of the density and trend of the Slovak Carpathian lynx population, and the establishment of a scientifically robust monitoring system.

The olistostromes form two belts within the Pieniny Klippen Belt (PKB) in the Northern Carpathians. They mark an early stage of the development of the accretionary prism. The first belt was formed during Late Cretaceous time as a result of subduction of the southern part of the Alpine Tethys. The fore-arc basin originated along this subduction zone, with synorogenic flysch deposits. Huge olistoliths deposited within the Cretaceous–Palaeogene flysch of the Złatne Basin, presently located in the vicinity of the Haligovce village (eastern Slovakia), provide a good example of the fore-arc olistostrome setting. The second belt is related to the movement of the accretionary prism, which overrode the Czorsztyn Ridge during Late Cretaceous–Paleocene time. The destruction of this ridge led to the formation of submarine slumps and olistoliths along the southern margin of the Magura Basin. The Upper Cretaceous – Paleocene flysch sequences of the Magura Basin constitute the matrix of olistostromes. The large Homole block in the Jaworki village represents the best example of the Magura Basin olistolith. Numerous examples of olistoliths were documented in western Slovakia, Poland, eastern Slovakia and Ukraine. The olistostromes formed within the Złatne and Magura basins orginated during the tectonic process, forming the olistostrome belts along the strike of the PKB structure.

You never know until you look. The authors deconstruct a kurgan burial mound in the Great Hungarian Plain designated to the Yamnaya culture, to find it was actually shared by a number of different peoples. The Yamnaya were an influential immigrant group of the Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition. The burials, already characterised by their grave goods, were radiocarbon dated and further examined using stable isotope analysis on the human teeth. The revealing sequence began with a young person of likely local origin buried around or even before the late fourth millennium BC—a few centuries before the arrival of the Yamnaya. It ended around 500 years later with a group of different immigrants, apparently from the eastern mountains. These are explained as contacts built up between the mountains and the plain through the practice of transhumance.

As Mesolithic people living on the Baltic coast began to adopt farming in the later fifth millennium BC, imports of a new type and quality started to reach them from the south — highly decorated pots and then copper axes from the Hungary-Serbia area. With new excavations at the site of Dąbki 9 in northern Poland, the authors are able to show how high quality thin-walled shiny black vessels are travelling over 1000km in the early fourth millennium BC, bringing prestige cups and jugs to the Baltic shore.

New U/Pb results by cathodoluminescence-controlled single zircon dating of rocks from the High Tatra Mountains (Slovakia) constrain ages for the protolith at 2Ga for the granitoids and 3 Ga for the Koncistá migmatite. Concordant single zircon ages date the intrusion of the migmatite precursor at 3567 Ma and the migmatisation at 332 ± 5 Ma. The intrusion of this precursor corresponds with the major granite intrusion in the Western Tatra Mountains. The geodynamic scenario at this time is described as slab detachment of subducted oceanic crust at the active continental margin of Gondwana. The resulting upwelling of asthenospheric mantle brought enough heat for the anatexis of old metasediments and the production of new H- to S-type granites. High Tatra diorites have an intrusion age of 341 ± 5 Ma, constrained by a concordant single zircon age. This age marks the beginning of the Variscan collision of the two convergent continents Laurasia and Gondwana. The intrusion of granites in the High Tatra was confirmed by concordant data at 314 ± 4 Ma, documenting the final stage of the Variscan continent collision.