Egypt, 1920s: in the Mokattam formation, from which the limestone rocks used to build the pyramids and the Sphinx were extracted, archaeologists find the fossil of a skull of a species of crocodile that lived 45 million years ago. From its characteristics it seems like a false gharial, a species widespread in south-east Asia.
One hundred years later, thanks to the new technologies at our disposal, we are able to analyze those same fossils in depth and discover that we were very wrong: the remains belonged to a previously unknown species of reptile, baptized Herugavialis cairensis in honor of the god Heru (better known as Horus), who inspired the Sphinx. Details of the discovery are published on Royal Society Open Science.
Gharials in Egypt
Gharials, reptiles that are distinguished from common crocodiles by their characteristic elongated snout, swim only in the rivers of India and Southeast Asia. Currently only two species remain: the Gangetic gharial (gavialis gangeticus) and the false gharial (tomistoma schlegelii).
Until about six million years ago, however, gharials were widespread almost everywhere − also in Egypt: «For much of the last 50 million years, the Mediterranean area has hosted a large variety of crocodiles, including gharials», explains research coordinator Paul Burke. With the drying up of the Mediterranean, which occurred about six million years ago, all crocodiles disappeared.
Horus, the Sphinx, and Voldermort’s “nose”.
Paleontologists have decided to call this new species Herugavialis in honor of Horus (or Heru), the Egyptian god who probably inspired the Sphinx. Curiously, the fossil has a feature in common with the lady with the lion-like body: it is missing the tip of its snout. «Given this coincidence with the famous missing nose of the Great Sphinx, we decided to give the new crocodile the name of the Egyptian god Heru, who may have inspired this iconic monument», concludes Philip Mannion, one of the authors.
