Goniopholis
genus of reptiles (fossil)
Goniopholis (meaning "angled scale") is an extinct genus of goniopholidid crocodyliform that lived in Europe and North America during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Like other goniopholidids, it resembled living crocodilians, and probably had a similar ecology as semi-aquatic ambush predators.
Discovery and species
The type species of the genus is G. crassidens which is known from the Berriasian of England, and the referable species G. simus from the Berriasian of NW Germany, might be conspecific. Other species that are referable to Goniopholis include G. kiplingi from the Berriasian of England, and G. baryglyphaeus from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) of Portugal making it the oldest known Goniopholis species. The species G. kiplingi honors the author Rudyard Kipling, "in recognition for his enthusiasm for natural sciences". G. kiplingi had skull reaching 475.6 mm (18.72 in), it is one of the largest goniopholidid along with Amphicotylus milesi which had skull reaching 43 cm (17 in). Based on skull length, total body length of G. kiplingi is estimated at 3.47 m (11.4 ft).
Eggs attributed to Goniopholis were found in the Late Jurassic of Portugal.
A partial skeleton of an indeterminate species of Goniopholis has been recovered from the Berriasian aged Angeac-Charente bonebed of France.
Goniopholis have been inferred to have been ectothermic on the basis of bone histology and stable isotope analysis.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Goniopholis” is genus of reptiles (fossil). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Goniopholis, genus and reptiles, not as a finished interpretation.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1011864. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Goniopholis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.