Freshwater monsters in Europe

Paleontologists found the 84 million-year-old fossil of a predatory animal in freshwater environments that scientists never knew in Hungary.

Illustration of Pannoniasaurus species. (Photo: National Geographic)

National Geographic reports that the paleontologists of the Hungarian Museum of Natural History found several thousand fossil pieces lying beneath a reservoir of waste from a coal mine in western Hungary.Pannoniasaurus , the name that paleontologists call this animal, belongs to an ancient reptile family that people call mosasaur . Appearance characteristics suggest that they may be hybrid products between crocodiles and whales. It is very likely that Pannoniasaurus lives throughout life in fresh water.

Fossils in the waste reservoir belong to many Pannoniasaurus, not one. Those animals have a body length of 100 to 400 cm.

"The fossils of many animals coexist in one place suggesting that this is an animal that lives in real freshwater, not a species that lives in saltwater and invades the environment for some reason. " , Micheal Caldwell, an University of Alberta paleontologist in Canada, commented.

Pannoniasaurus teeth are relatively small and sharp - a sign that they only catch fish. In addition, they may also eat amphibians, lizards.

"I don't think they're big predators , " Caldwell commented.

Their four limbs have a more leg-like shape, so the researchers think that they often climb ashore.

"It is possible that they are amphibians and have the same crocodile habitat today. They live in fresh water for most of the time, but when the water is shallow or when it needs to move from one river to another, they must climb. go ashore, " Caldwell said.