The Great Sphinx of Giza has puzzled historians for centuries, but new research suggests the ancient monument may hold a secret dating back far beyond human civilisation.
Researchers say the limestone used to carve the famous half-human, half-lion statue may contain fossilised remains of a previously unknown crocodile.
The discovery emerged from an examination of the Mokattam Formation in northern Egypt, a geological layer formed around 54 million years ago.
The extinct animal has been named Herugavialis cairensis, combining the name of the Egyptian god Heru—thought by some to be linked to the Sphinx—with a reference to Cairo.
Its fossilised remains were found in the same ancient limestone deposits that workers quarried more than 4,000 years ago to build the Great Sphinx.
That geological connection has raised the intriguing possibility that fragments of these long-extinct crocodiles could be embedded within the monument itself.
Dr Paul Burke, the study’s lead author from the Swedish Museum of Natural History, told the Daily Mail that it was certainly possible, since the Sphinx was made from the same rock in which Herugavialis was discovered.
However, he joked that dismantling the Sphinx in search of fossils would not be a sensible way to test the theory.
New research suggests that the limestone forming the Great Sphinx of Giza may contain fossilised remains of ancient crocodiles
Researchers identified a new extinct crocodile species in Egypt’s 54-million-year-old Mokattam Formation, the same rock source used in constructing the Sphinx, and named it Herugavialis cairensis (artist’s impression)
Professor Philip Mannion, a study co-author from University College London, said the animal’s name also reflects the curious coincidence that both its skull and the Sphinx are missing the front of the snout. The researchers therefore chose the name Heru, the Egyptian deity who may have inspired the iconic statue.
Herugavialis belonged to the gavial group, recognisable for its unusually narrow and elongated jaws.
Only two gavial species survive today, inhabiting freshwater ecosystems in parts of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
The fossil skull itself is not a recent find. It was unearthed during excavations in the Mokattam Formation in the 1920s.
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For decades, scientists classified the specimen as belonging to the false gharial, Tomistoma schlegelii, a living member of the wider gavial group.
Modern palaeontological techniques, including CT scans that reveal the skull’s internal structure, eventually exposed important differences between the fossil and the false gharial.
The evidence showed that the remains represented an entirely new extinct crocodile species, which the team has formally described in a study published in Royal Society Open Science.
In another striking parallel with the Sphinx, the fossil skull is also incomplete, with the tip of its long snout missing.
Researchers say the Great Sphinx could contain additional fossils of Herugavialis cairensis (artist’s impression), although they strongly advise against taking the monument apart to look for them
The fossilised skull of the ancient crocodile is missing its snout tip, echoing the Great Sphinx’s famously lost nose
Even though that part of the fossil is slightly damaged, this distinctive skull shape gives palaeontologists a clue as to how the animal might have once lived.
Dr Burke says: ‘Herugavialis has a long, thin snout with razor-sharp, pointed teeth, similar to the extant Indian gharial, Gavialis.
‘The Indian gharial feeds primarily on fish, so we think that Herugavialis did the same. In addition, the Mokattam Formation where Herugavialis was recovered from, also preserves plenty of fish fossils, so we assume they fed on these species.’
While the gavials have now vanished from the Mediterranean, the fossil records show that these aquatic hunters once spanned nearly the entire globe for more than 100 million years, with many living in shallow marine habitats.
In fact, scientists think that Herugavialis would have once shared its home with at least two other species of long-snouted gavials.
Dr Paul Burke, of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, says: ‘Throughout much of the last 50million years, the Mediterranean region hosted a high diversity of crocodiles, including gavials.
‘However, this diversity fluctuated over time, seemingly corresponding to changes in global temperature and sea level, before the loss of all crocodiles in this region as a result of the drying of the Mediterranean approximately six million years ago.’