Gavialimimus
Name:
Gavialimimus
(gharial mimic).
Phonetic: Gah-ve-al-my-mus.
Named By: Catherine R. C. Strong, Michael W.
Caldwell, Takuya Konishi & Alessandro Palci - 2020.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Mosasauroidea, Mosasauridae, Plioplatecarpinae.
Species: G. almaghribensis
(type).
Diet: Piscivore/Carnivore.
Size: Holotype skull estiamted to be about 1
meter long.
Known locations: Morocco, Ouled Abdoun Basin.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Skull and partial post
cranial remains.
Gavialimimus
is a genus of mosasaur
that lived in waters around North Africa during
the latest Cretaceous. Gavialimimus is noted for
its jaws which are
substantially longer and more slender than those of most other
mosasaurs. This would clearly be an adaptation for specialised
feeding, possibly for either fish or squid. This may have also been
a case of a mosasaur adapting to fill an ecological niche left behind
by some of the specialised ichthyosaurs
that had long been extinct for
tens of millions of years before Gavialimimus
existed.
Further reading
- A new species of
longirostrine plioplatecarpine mosasaur (Squamata: Mosasauridae)
from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco, with a re-evaluation of the
problematic taxon 'Platecarpus' ptychodon. - Journal of
Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (21): 1769–1804. - Catherine
R. C. Strong, Michael W. Caldwell, Takuya Konishi &
Alessandro Palci - 2020.
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