In Depth
Originally named as a species of Mosasaurus, Goronyosaurus was a medium sized mosasaur that lived in the waters of Africa. So far fossils of Goronyosaurus have been found in Niger and Nigeria. The key thing here is that Niger is a land locked country, so this may actually be an indicator that Goronyosaurus swam up rivers as it hunted for prey. This is not that much of a stretch of the imagination, the genus Pannoniasaurus that was named in 2012 is the first genus of mosasaur that has been confirmed as coming from a freshwater deposit. Therefore it is not wholly improbable that Goronyosaurus and maybe other mosasaurs hunted in freshwater at least occasionally.
Further Reading
- An aberrant mosasaur from the Upper Cretaceous of north-western Nigeria. - Rendiconti della classe di fisiche, mathematiche e naturali 52:398-402. - A. Azzaroli, C. De Giuli, G. Ficcarelli & D. Torre - 1972. – The mosasaur Goronyosaurus from the Upper Cretaceous of Sokoto State, Nigeria. – Palaeontology. 31 (3): 747–762. – T. Soliar – 1988.
