Scientists identify ancient crocodile species in rock that built the Great Sphinx

Researchers have identified a new genus of extinct crocodilian from fossils found in the same limestone formation that provided stone for the Great Sphinx.

• Researchers identified the extinct crocodilian genus Herugavialis cairensis from fossils in Egypt's Mokattam Formation, the limestone that built the Great Sphinx and Giza pyramids.
• The study, published October 6 in Royal Society Open Science, reclassified fossils first described in 1927 as Tomistoma cairense.
• Burke said Herugavialis cairensis is one of six gharial species known from the Mediterranean across a 43-million-year period.
• Burke said the crocodile's long thin snout and razor-sharp teeth were adapted to capture fish in the shallow sea that covered northern Egypt.
• Egypt's Higher Education Minister Abdelaziz Konsowa congratulated Mansoura University and its Vertebrate Paleontology Center, led by Hisham Salam, for the study.