New extinct crocodile found in the rock of the Sphinx
Palaeontologist Karim Zanaty and colleagues describe Herugavialis cairensis, a new extinct gavial crocodile. The fossil came from the Mokattam Formation in Egypt, the rock used to carve the Great Sphinx of Giza.
The team, led by Paul Burke of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, used CT scans to re-examine a skull first described in 1927. They found differences from Tomistoma, including raised rims around the eye sockets. Zanaty says the work may help explain how gavials once lived across the globe, while only two endangered species survive. This account is a first-person piece by the researchers, not the peer-reviewed paper.