Researchers identified a new crocodile genus from a 45-million-year-old fossil found in Egypt. The fossil originated from the Mokattam Formation. Researchers from Egypt, the UK, Sweden, and Germany named the animal Herugavialis cairensis. This finding was published in Royal Society Open Science. Paul Burke of the Swedish Museum of Natural History led the study. The name honours the Egyptian god Heru, as the resemblance between the fossil's missing snout tip and the Sphinx's absent nose inspired the naming, according to Philip Mannion of University College London.
About 45 million years ago, much of the region lay beneath shallow seas. The animal, Herugavialis, lived alongside at least two other species of long-snouted crocodiles. The creature belonged to a group whose only surviving members are the Indian gharial and false gharial. Fossils indicate that the relatives of this genus once possessed a much wider distribution, with more than 40 species recognised. The animal was initially described in 1927 under the name Tomistoma cairense.
