Fossils of a newly recognized Egyptian crocodile species come from the same rocks as the Great Sphinx, and a missing snout tip helped inspire the animal’s name.
Crocodile fossils recovered in Egypt in the 1920s were initially grouped with a living long-snouted crocodile called the false gharial because of their outward resemblance. A new examination, including CT scans that let researchers look inside a nearly complete skull, has identified the Egyptian fossils as a distinct extinct species, Herugavialis cairensis.
Dr. Paul Burke, a researcher at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, led the international team from the UK, Sweden, Germany, and Egypt. Advances in paleontological analysis allowed the researchers to identify several differences between the Egyptian fossils and the false gharial, challenging their original assignment to the genus Tomistoma.
Long-snouted crocodiles once lived at sea
The fossils came from Egypt’s 45-million-year-old Mokattam Formation. At that time, shallow seas covered much of the region, and Herugavialis shared those waters with at least two other species of gavials, a group of crocodiles distinguished by their long, narrow snouts.
Today, gavials live only in freshwater environments on the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia. Just two species survive, Gavialis gangeticus and Tomistoma schlegelii, the false gharial. Their fossil record, however, spans more than 100 million years and documents a nearly worldwide distribution, with many species inhabiting shallow marine environments.
The Sphinx inspires a crocodile’s name
The Egyptian skull also has an unusual connection to the Great Sphinx. It comes from the same rocks used to build the monument and, although otherwise relatively well preserved, is missing the tip of its snout.
“Given this coincidence with the famously missing nose of the Great Sphinx, we decided to name the new crocodile after the Egyptian god Heru, who was possibly the inspiration for this iconic monument,” says Professor Philip Mannion of University College London, who co-led the study.
How the Mediterranean lost its crocodiles
The shallow seas inhabited by Herugavialis were part of a much longer history of crocodile life across the Mediterranean.
“Throughout much of the last 50 million years, the Mediterranean region hosted a high diversity of crocodiles, including gavials,” says Burke, the study’s lead author.
“However, this diversity fluctuated over time, seemingly corresponding to changes in global temperature and sea level, before the loss of all crocodiles in this region as a result of the drying of the Mediterranean approximately 6 million years ago.”
Reference: “Cranial anatomy of the Middle Eocene Egyptian crocodylian Herugavialis cairensis provides new insights into gavialoid diversity in the Mediterranean region” by Paul M. J. Burke, Stephan N. F. Spiekman, Belal S. Salem, Sara Saber, Hesham M. Sallam and Philip D. Mannion, 1 October 2026, Royal Society Open Science.
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.261173
P.M.J.B. is supported by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW-2020.0145). S.N.F.S. is supported by the DFG Emmy Noether Programme (SP 2138/1-1). P.D.M.’s research was supported by funding from The Royal Society (UF 160216, URF\R\221010, RGF\EA\201037) and NERC (NE/X014010/1).
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