The rock that built the Sphinx hid a new species for a century

A fossil skull pulled from Egypt’s Mokattam Formation in the 1920s — the same limestone the ancient Egyptians carved into the Sphinx and the pyramids — has turned out to be a previously unknown species of gavial, a long-snouted crocodilian cousin. Researchers named it Herugavialis cairensis after the falcon god Heru, in a nod to the Sphinx’s famously missing nose. The study, published October 7 in Royal Society Open Science, shows the shallow seas that once covered northern Egypt teemed with crocodile diversity. A museum drawer, a century of patience, a brand-new ancient beast.