Geological and paleontological records on Osijek and its surroundings

The earliest geological and paleontological notes about Osijek and its surrounding originate from the 19th century. Geology of this part of our country has for the first time been presented on the Revised Geological Map of Austria-Hungary Monarchy, by Ritter von Hauer, published in Vienna (1867-1871). As in those days researchers could study only surface layers with mostly loess, that is why those layers were the main topic of the earliest geological works. One of the first authors who dealt with that topic was Pilar (1875) whereas thirty years later the Commission for Scientific research of Syrmia initiated research of loess areas in Slavonia. The founder of the Commission, Gorjanovic-Kramberger (1912, 1914, 1914a, 1921 ,1922) published many works with detailed reviews of morphological and hydrographic features of loess in Slavonia. Taksic (1947) summarized all known facts about loess and compared stratigraphy and origins of our loess to other from similar areas in Europe. The material for loess had been brought form the Alps, according to Tajder (1942)and that theory was confirmed Taksic (1947) and Mutic (1975) as well. Beginning from the middle of the last century, geologists deal with the earlier layers. Modern methods of research made it easier for them to be more thorough. Such researches contributed forming of more complete geological picture of this area. Jagacic (1963) describe a sequence of sedimentation of the earliest archaic and Paleozoic rocks, from cretaceous, tortonic, pannonic to pontic layers. In the 70s and 80s of the 20th century the researches were rather intensive what can be proved by numerous works of many experts in applied geology. For example, Kranjec and others (1969, 1970, 1972, 1976) studied stratigraphic-tectonic relations and Simon (1973)divided tertiary layers into lithostratigra-phic units. Detailed paleontological analyses of the samples from the boreholes were done by Sokac (1971, 1982) whereas Hernitz (1983) in his monograph comprised all facts about geology of this area. Malez (1970) gave a thorough review of Vertebrata in Drava river basin and Rukavina dealt with Pleistocene (1983). The most extensive researches were done when making The Basic Geological Map - Leaf Osijek, scale 1:100000, The Map and the enclosed legend (Magas, 1987,1987a) represent a basic source of information on geology of this region. Aggression on Croatia and the war as well as postwar conditions prevented further research in the whole of Slavonia.As a consequence there aren\u27t recent works that would prove the already known facts or give additional explanations to geology in this region