In the millennia-spanning fossil records of the order Crocodylia, there was always a group of crocodiles that made little geographical sense.
Scientists found one of these animals a century ago in a rock formation in the hills of Mokattam, southeast of Cairo — the same rock formation that was quarried to build the Sphinx of Giza. The ancient reptile was identified in the historical records as belonging to the genus Tomistoma, the “false gharial.”