| Lake Slavonia | |
|---|---|
 Map of the lake | |
| Location | Pannonian Plain |
| Type | former lake |
| Basin countries | modern day Serbia, Croatia, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina [1] |
| Max. length | 290 kilometres (180 mi) [1] |
| Max. width | 120 kilometres (75 mi) [1] |
| Surface area | 28,000 kilometres (17,000 mi) [1] |
| Islands | Fruška Gora |
The Lake Slavonia, [a] alternatively Paludina Lake, [2] was an ancient fresh-water lake that developed from the middle Pliocene to the early Pleistocene in the southern part of the Pannonian Basin at the time of final retraction of the Pannonian Sea. [3] The lake was located in the area of modern-day Vojvodina in northern Serbia and eastern Slavonia in Croatia.
Contents
In the Pliocene, favourable climatic and geodynamic conditions in southeastern Europe led to the development of extensive, long-lasting lakes like Lake Slavonia. [4] These lakes saw a rapid diversification of viviparid snails during the warming period reaching its peak between 3.3 and 2.9 million years ago when temperatures rose by as much as 10 °C. [4] [5]
M. Neumayr and C. M. Paul, in their 1875 study, used the molluscs from Lake Slavonia to develop a regional biostratigraphy, allowing precise stratigraphic analysis of deposits spanning over 600 km along the southern boundary of the Pannonian Basin. [4] They originally named it Paludina Lake but over time researchers introduced the new name of the lake. [6]