Pronunciation: hun-GAH-ro-SOR-us
Meaning: Hungary lizard
Author/s: Attila Ösi (2005)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Veszprém, Hungary
Discovery Chart Position: #574
Hungarosaurus tormai
(Torma's Hungary lizard)Etymology
Hungarosaurus is derived from "Hungary" (the country in which it was discovered) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The species epithet, tormai, honours András Torma, co-discoverer of the Hungarosaurus fossil site in 2000.
Discovery
The remains of Hungarosaurus were discovered in an open-pit bauxite mine in the Csehbánya Formation near the village of Iharkút, Veszprém County, Bakony Mountains, western Hungary, by Attila Ösi and András Torma in 2001. The site also contained fossils of fishes, amphibians, turtles, crocodiles, lizards, pterosaurs, and every other dinosaur that has ever been found in Hungary.
The Hungarosaurus holotype (MTM Gyn/404) is a partial skull and skeleton, including three neck vertebrae, six back vertebrae, ten tail vertebrae, three neck and thirteen back ribs, five chevrons, tendon fragments, a complete left shoulder girdle, a right shoulder blade, right radius, four metacarpals, a partial hip (parts of the left and right ilia, left ischium), right thigh, right shin, and more than a hundred osteoderms.
Paratypes include MTM Gyn/405 (one back vertebra, neck and back ribs, some small circular armour scutes and a piece of neck armour called a "half-ring"), MTM Gyn/406 (a fragmentary ulna, ribs and scutes, and what may be a piece of femur), and MTM Gyn/407 (a sacrum with both ilia and ischia, and fused armour plates.)
