Gavialimimus

Gavialimimus is an extinct genus of plioplatecarpine mosasaur from the Maastrichtian of Morocco. The holotype MHNM.KHG.1231, an articulated skull and associated fragmentary postcrania, was found in the Ouled Abdoun Basin.

The etymology of this genus means "gharial mimic" (Hindi Gavial = "gharial" + Greek mimus = "mimic"). The genus name refers to morphological convergence between Gavialimimus and the extant gharial (Gavialis gangeticus). Gavialimimus has been said to occupy the niche of a large piscivore. In this way, through severe specialization, it managed to co-exist with several other large mosasaur species in the same area.

It was a medium-sized mosasaur, measuring 6 m long.

Classification
In their 2024 description of the Moroccan plioplatecarpine Khinjaria, Longrich et al. used phylogenetic analyses to recover it within a clade of non-plioplatecarpin plioplatecarpine mosasaurids. They named this clade—also containing Gavialimimus, Goronyosaurus and Selmasaurus—the Selmasaurini. A similar clade was recovered by Strong et al. (2020) in their description of Gavialimimus. The results of the analyses of Longrich et al. are shown in the cladogram below: