Jurassic croc named after Motorhead frontman

In life he was big, ugly and full of attitude – no wonder scientists chose to name a ferocious Jurassic crocodile after Lemmy.

And, it was revealed today, the decision to grant the honour to the late rock star came after a discovery in Edinburgh,

Like the hell-raising Motorhead frontman who died in 2015, the 19ft (5.8m) long beast now dubbed Lemmysuchus was no stranger to trouble.

The monster that terrorised coastal waters around the UK more than 145 million years ago had a skull measuring just over a metre and large, blunt teeth.

A fossil skeleton of one of the creatures was housed at London’s Natural History Museum. After a recent study of the specimen, University of Edinburgh palaeontologist Michela Johnson realised it had been wrongly classified and needed a new name.