Mirko Malez
Most of his papers and research interests were directed towards fossil mammals of the Pleistocene and the paleontological processing of certain species, determining their taxonomy, migrations and palaeogeography.
In the summer of 1935, a local naturalist and archaeologist Stjepan Vuković organized an exhibition of prehistorical finds from Vindija Cave and Sever's quarry near Vuglovac, and this event in Malez's early childhood certainly affected his future career.
Stjepan Vuković, as early as 1928, showed an interest in Vindija Cave near Ivanec, and from 1934 until 1969 uncovered archaeological finds in its Holocene layers.
During his studies, he performed as a demonstrator and an assistant in organizing geological team expeditions, led by Marijan Salopek from the Geological-paleontological Institute of the Faculty.
In 1963, his dissertation was on the theme " Stratigraphic and paleontological research of diluvial (Diluvium) sites inside the Veternica cave (Medvednica, near Zagreb).
On June 6, 1953, Malez began his professional career as an assistant in the professional class of Academician Marijan Salopek in the Geological-Paleontological Collection and Karst Laboratory of the JAZU (Yugoslav Academy of Art and Science) (The Collection & Laboratory unit was officially active since March 24, 1955) Its purpose was geological–paleontological, hydrological and speleological research of the karst, and archive development.
Malez cooperated with several others on making the geological map of Yugoslavia, and on the pedological map: he cooperated with Dr Teofil Slišković in interpreting the vertebrate fossil finds and the quaternary geology of the Bosnia Herzegovina, then with Ivan Rakovec (doyen of Slovenian quaternary research), Dr Risto Garevski, during the analyses of the tertiary vertebrate faunas of Macedonia, Erich Thenius and Helmuth Zapfe in Vienna, Herbert Ullrich from Berlin, Henry de Lumley from Paris, Fred Smith from the US and Ann Forsten from Helsinki.
Following his research inclinations and scientific obligations over the years, he visited Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, China and Mexico.
[7] During an expedition to the "Strašna peć" cave in 1953 (English: "the horrible stove"), Malez wrote: "We were muddy, dirty, bloody as well, since we scraped on the stone blocks and stalactites during the wriggling and crawling.
Malez carried out anatomical-morphological analyses and studies of geological stratigraphy dating, the appearance of ice wedges and the development of river terraces.
On the evidence of hearthstones and material cultures, Malez found the presence of the early man Homo Erectus in the Šandalja cave dated to approximately 900,000 years of age.
Co-authoring with Erich Thenius[9] Malez describes a new species, from the Perissodactyla Order, Amynodontidae Family: Cadurcotherium rakoveci, whose fragments were found in Ugljevik, Croatia within brown coal, dated to the Upper Oligocene (or lower Miocene).
During deep-sea trawling by driftnet in 1979, in the aquatorium between the islands of Rab, Laganj and Pag, his team recovered a molar and a diaphysis of the femur of a fossil elephant.
[10] Malez, in cooperation with Gernot Rabeder, studied the fauna of mammals from bone breccias, from the Podumci 1 site, dated mostly to lower Pleistocene.
[11] The data from that study, and a stratigraphic analysis of the fauna, enabled the authors to reconstruct the evolutionary lines of the families Episoriculus, Microtus, Pliomys, Lagurus and Dinaromys.
Further, in a few articles he analysed pathological transformations on the bones of cave bear remains, in cooperation with Nikolić and the Institute for Anatomy of the faculty for Medicine at the University of Zagreb.
Results were presented of recent studies of the rich paleontological, paleoanthropological and archaeological material gathered from Pleistocene layers in a shelter in the Hušnjakovo hill at Krapina.
The event attracted attention and interest in the Krapina remains among many scientists: Erik Trinkaus, J. H. Musgrave, F. H. Smith, C. Guth, M. - A. de Lumley, Milford H. Wolpoff, A. Gardner and H. Ullrich.
Since his death, many conferences, gatherings and tribute meetings have been organised, in Croatia and abroad, to honour the character and work of this famous Croatian scientist.
[16] The honorary chairmanship board included Ljerka Marjanac, Lidija Galović, Nada Horvatinčić, Mladen Juračić, Ivor Karavanić and Josipa Velić.
In the little town of Lepoglava near Varaždin, in September 2005, a small group was established called the Friends Club of the minerals "Mirko Malez".
