Ancient crocodile named after Hungarian scientist

Attila Fitos, an amateur palaeontologist, found some special crocodile fossils in the north-western hills of Hungary about twenty years ago. Now, the finding has been published in an international scientific journal, and the species is named after him, as szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu reports.

It was in 1996 that Attila Fitos, an amateur scientist, stumbled upon a bunch of interesting fossils in the Gerecse Mountains, where teeth and bones were rolling out of a quarry in the side of the Pisznice hill. The find was followed by other ones until the partial skeleton of a crocodile was reconstructed.

The set of findings have been presented to the public in the Museum of Natural History, Budapest, by palaeontologist Attila Ősi, who said that detailed analysis of the fossils took place in 2017, where the researchers at the Hungarian ELTE university collaborated with colleagues from the University of Edinburgh and Martin Luther University, Germany.

The Gerecse Mountains, where the fossils of the ancient crocodile have been unearthed. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Based on the different body parts discovered, it has been concluded that the sea predator was almost five meters long, and belonged to the first group of crocodiles that lived in water. As it differs greatly from all previously known forms,

the skeleton was named Magyarosuchus fitosi in honor of Attila Fitos and his Hungarian nationality.

As Zsófia Medzihradszky, the deputy director of the Museum of Natural History commented, the findings will be preserved not only for the general public, but to future researchers, too, so that subsequent work can be conducted on the paleontological finding.

Featured image: MTI

Source: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu