MANSOURA, EGYPT — Scientists have identified a crocodile fossil discovered nearly a century ago in Cairo’s Mokattam Hills, following modern computed tomography (CT) scans by an international scientific collaboration.
Researchers found the remains in 1927 and initially categorised them in the genus Tomistoma, the present-day false gharial. However, advanced CT scanning of the fossil’s skull has led scientists from Egypt and Europe to identify the animal as a new genus, Herugavialis cairensis. The new genus is an extinct, long-snouted ancestor of gharials that lived in northern Egypt’s rivers about 45 million years ago.
The genus name Herugavialis draws inspiration from Heru (Horus), referencing both the Great Sphinx and the limestone formation where the skull was discovered the same rock that built Egypt’s famous pyramids. Fittingly, the specimen shares a missing snout tip reminiscent of the Sphinx’s damaged nose.
The findings, published in Royal Society Open Science, resulted from a partnership between Egypt’s Mansoura University Vertebrate Palaeontology Centre and the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany, where the fossils are preserved. Egyptian researchers Shorouk El-Ashqar, Sanaa El-Sayed, and palaeontologist Hesham Sallam contributed comparative data and scientific assessments to the study.
Researchers emphasise that this discovery sheds vital light on ancient crocodylian diversity and environmental adaptation, proving that historic museum collections can still yield groundbreaking palaeontological revelations through contemporary technology.
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