Overview
- A team published in October 2026 formally named Herugavialis cairensis from a roughly 45-million-year-old skull recovered in Egypt’s Mokattam Formation.
- The skull was dug up in the 1920s and spent nearly a century miscataloged in a German museum before being reexamined by the international research team.
- High-resolution micro-CT imaging revealed internal anatomy never seen in closely related species, including raised rims around telescoped eye sockets and a blunt peak on the braincase.
- Researchers scored 331 morphological traits and placed Herugavialis on a branch related to the Indian gharial, separate from the false gharial Tomistoma.
- The find shows Eocene northern Egypt hosted multiple long-snouted gavials in warm shallow seas, highlights the value of re-scanning museum collections, and may prompt re-evaluation of other Mediterranean gavial fossils.