French researchers identify a 2.5-metre freshwater mosasaur from Provence
Researchers led by Nathalie Bardet and Alexandra Houssaye have described Garamaudo bauciensis, a mosasaur that lived in a freshwater lake in what is now Provence about 84 million years ago. Its limbs and pelvis retained features suited to land movement, but dense bones suggest it was adapted to swimming and diving in shallow water.
Bottom line — Garamaudo adds another freshwater species to the tethysaurine group, the only mosasaurid lineage currently known to have evolved multiple freshwater forms.
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The fossils were found in 1997 at Bouc-Bel-Air, near Aix-en-Provence; the remains include part of a jaw, vertebrae, ribs, a pelvis and a humerus.
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The Peer Community Journal study says material represents at least four individuals, though most belongs to one.
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CT scans showed unusually dense bone in the vertebrae, ribs and humerus, which the researchers link to buoyancy control and shallow diving.
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The researchers suggest it swam with eel-like undulations and may have ambushed prey, but its diet is unknown.
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The fossil site represents a freshwater lake periodically affected by flooding and shallowing, according to the study.