Matti Aumala

Mokelesaurus gargouille:
Though in the Cenozoic mokelesaurs (excluding the dwarf forms on isolated islands) have been restricted to the continent of Africa, they were once found in large parts of Europe and western Asia. The first mokelesaurs migrated to Europe with their terrestial titanosaur cousins in the Miocene, but these first forms show less adaptations to aquatic lifestyle than modern mokeles.

In the Pliocene European waterways were dominated by the now-extinct species, Mokelesaurus gargouille, which, before the ice ages, ranged from the British isles to the Persian gulf . It was little different from the modern Nile mokele except for its larger size. The largest known M.gargouille skeleton, found in southern France, indicates the species could reach the length of 16 meters. It is yet unknown whether M. gargouille evolved in Europe or in Africa, but it seems to have given rise to the Mediterranean minimokeles (Minimokelesaurus insularis).

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