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The crocodile most likely behind this headline is Herugavialis cairensis, an extinct gavial identified in a fossil skull from Egypt. Scientists did not encounter a living animal: the skull was collected in the 1920s and has now been recognized as belonging to a distinct species. The exact article originally meant by the headline could not be confirmed, so this identification is the best-supported match to the newly reported discovery.
What crocodile did scientists identify?
The species is Herugavialis cairensis, described in a study published in Royal Society Open Science on October 6, 2026. The paper’s DOI is 10.1098/rsos.261173. The identification is based on a fossil skull recovered in Egypt in the 1920s, not on a newly found living crocodile.
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The fossil comes from the Mokattam Formation, which Popular Science describes as about 45 million years old. Researchers had previously assigned the Egyptian material to Tomistoma, the living false gharial, because of its resemblance. The new study instead recognizes it as a distinct extinct species. The accessible reporting does not give enough detail to explain the specific skull features that distinguish it, so more precise claims about its anatomy would go beyond what is established here.
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The earlier identification linked the Egyptian fossils to Tomistoma, a living gavial. Gavials are long-snouted crocodilians, and their fossil record shows that they were once more widespread than their living relatives are today. Popular Science reports that two species are recognized today: Gavialis gangeticus and Tomistoma schlegelii, the false gharial.
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Recognizing the Egyptian skull as a separate species changes how paleontologists classify that material and adds another example to the fossil record of gavials. The finding is a taxonomic reassessment of an old specimen, rather than evidence that the animal survived into the present.
What does the name have to do with the Sphinx?
The species name combines a reference to the Egyptian god Heru with Cairo. The skull is relatively well preserved, but its snout tip is missing. That absence reminded the researchers of the Sphinx’s famously missing nose; it is a naming coincidence, not evidence that the fossil was found at the monument or that the crocodile has a scientific connection to it.
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Study coauthor Philip Mannion, an evolutionary biologist at University College London, told Popular Science: “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,”
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What does the discovery reveal about ancient crocodiles?
The Egyptian fossil adds to evidence that gavials and other crocodiles once inhabited a wider range of places and environments than they do today. According to Popular Science, shallow seas in the region represented by the Mokattam Formation hosted at least two other gavial crocodile species as well as the newly recognized Egyptian animal.
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Coauthor Paul Burke, a paleontologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, said the Mediterranean region hosted “a high diversity of crocodiles, including gavials” during much of the last 50 million years. He described changes in that diversity as seemingly corresponding with global temperature and sea-level shifts. Burke also said crocodiles disappeared from the region after the Mediterranean dried approximately 6 million years ago. That is the researchers’ interpretation as reported by Popular Science, not a claim that this one fossil establishes the cause of the region-wide disappearance.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is this the same crocodile as Ethiopia’s “Lucy’s hunter”?
No. Herugavialis cairensis is the likely match for the October 2026 Egypt headline. A separate species, Crocodylus lucivenator, or “Lucy’s hunter,” was described in March 2026 from fossils found at Hadar in Ethiopia. The University of Iowa says that study examined 121 catalogued remains and places the species at around 3.4 to 3 million years ago; it overlapped in place and time with Australopithecus afarensis. That is a different crocodile, from a different region and a much younger period than the Egyptian fossil.
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