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Fossil firmly establishes North Africa as the “cradle” of marine crocodile evolution

 Sobek was an ancient Egyptian crocodile god—and a primary inspiration behind a newly discovered 80-million-year-old crocodilelike species called Wadisuchus kassabi. The find indicates the species—identified from a freshly unearthed ensemble of fossil skull and jaw fragments excavated from the Kharga Oasis in southwestern Egypt—was between 3.5 and 4 meters long and captured turtles or slippery fish with its elongated snout and needlelike teeth, according to The Jerusalem Post. The remains differ markedly from more modern species such as this Nile crocodile (pictured). CT scans and phylogenetic analyses show the new specimens represent the earliest known occurrence of these so-called crocodyliforms in the fossil record, researchers report this week in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. The find firmly establishes North Africa as the “cradle” of marine crocodile evolution and pushes back the emergence of these animals by up to 20 million years.