Janos Petényi Salamon

* Ábelfalva, July 30, 1799 – Pest, † October 5, 1855 / naturalist, ornithologist, founder of Hungarian ornithology and paleontology ; ; His father, Gábor Petényi (1756–1821), was an Evangelical pastor and orientalist. He completed his school studies in Losonc, Bánya Beszterce and Bánya Selmec. He was already interested in observing nature: he collected minerals and bird eggs and also dealt with botany. He also mastered the taxidermy and preparation of birds. Like his father, he trained as an Evangelical priest and completed his theological studies in Bratislava and Vienna. In 1826 he became a priest in Cinkota, and in addition to his work he mainly studied the wildlife of the area. In 1833 he gave up his job in Cinkota and moved to Pest to devote his time exclusively to science. In 1834 he was appointed as the supervisor of the zoological collection of the Hungarian National Museum, but this job was certainly not very profitable, so he also worked as a pastor. From 1824 he traveled to various regions of what was then Hungary with more or less regularity to make ornithological observations. He discovered and described several bird species. He observed the winter and spring migrations of birds for years. ; His ichthyological research was also important: he determined 49 fish species and 3 subspecies. In recognition of this, his teacher, Johann Jakob Heckel (1790–1857), named a fish species after him – the Petényi barbel (Barbus peloponnesius petenyi). The ornithological notes he left behind were edited and published by the ornithologist Titusz Csörgey (® Breznóbánya, Ottó Hermann) in 1904. In 1847, Petényi conducted excavations in the karst caves of Szőlő-hegy in Beremend and was the first in Hungary to scientifically and systematically uncover vertebrate fossils, thus laying the foundation for domestic paleontological research. In 1854, Petényi participated in a cave exploration tour in Transylvania with naturalist diver János Kovács (1816–1906). He is credited with the first description of the birdlife of Hungary, and prepared a handbook of the vertebrate fauna of Hungary. ; ; We also know that he listed Hungarian caves, but this was lost. He became a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1846. ; ; His main works: ; Essay on the birth, adolescence and growth of ornithology in Hungary. Report on the general meeting of Hungarian Doctors and Naturalists held in 1843, ; Regarding the zoology of Transylvania, 1844; On the new growth of Hungarian ornithology, 1845; A brief outline of his natural history journey through the mountain ranges of Bihar County between Sebes and Fekete-Körös; Hungarian Academic Bulletin, XIV., 1854; On pachyderms and rhinoceroses in general, and on the grooved hornbills in particular, 1854, Ferenc Kubinyi: János Salamon Petényi; his works left behind, 1864.