Mediterranean gavial diversity revealed

Researchers CT‑scanned a crocodile skull from Egypt's Mokattam Formation and concluded it represents a new gavial species, Herugavialis cairensis, living about 45 million years ago. The specimen, and coeval species, imply the ancient Mediterranean/Tethys hosted multiple long‑snouted, fish‑eating crocs that later collapsed in diversity after cooling and the Mediterranean 'salinity crises.' — This concrete fossil record links ancient climate/tectonic disruptions to regional extinctions and offers a long‑term analogue for how sea‑level and salinity shifts can reconfigure biodiversity.