Cranial anatomy of the Middle Eocene Egyptian crocodylian Herugavialis cairensis provides new insights into gavialoid diversity in the Mediterranean region
Paul M J Burke, Stephan N F Spiekman, Belal S Salem, Sara Saber, Hesham M Sallam, Philip D Mannion · 2026
Read Cranial anatomy of the Middle Eocene Egyptian crocodylian Herugavialis cairensis provides new insights into gavialoid diversity in the Mediterranean region by Paul M J Burke, Stephan N F Spiekman, Belal S Salem, Sara Saber, Hesham M Sallam, Philip D Mannion (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13641911.txt.
Description
Paul Burke and five colleagues re-read the skull of a fossil crocodile from Egypt and gave it back its own name, Herugavialis cairensis. Long snouts mark the gavialoids, a group now down to two living kinds in Asia. Fossils tell a far richer tale, with over forty kinds found worldwide. Many from the Mediterranean were once lumped under one name. The team studied the type skull and other finds from Egypt's Middle Eocene Mokattam rocks, plus CT scans of the inner skull.
Bone by bone, the skull parted ways with the living false gharial it was named for. Its inner ear and brain space added fresh marks of difference. The split redraws the family tree for the region's fossil forms. The twenty twenty-six study shows how much diversity hides inside old museum names until someone looks again with new tools.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Paul M J Burke, Stephan N F Spiekman, Belal S Salem, Sara Saber, Hesham M Sallam, Philip D Mannion |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 70 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |