Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• *Wadisuchus kassabi *is now the newest, and oldest, crocodile ancestor to crawl out of Egypt.
• 80-million-year-old fossils revealed that this dyrosaurid species began to diversify millions of years earlier than previously thought, starting with evolutionary changes in its bite.
• The age of *Wadisuchus *also pushes back the origin of dyrosaurids in Africa, and its descendants would go on to survive a punishing mass extinction.

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Ancient Egyptians saw crocodiles as the sacred animal of the god Sobek. With a crocodilian head on a humanoid body, he was though to have emerged from a watery abyss to create the Nile from his sweat. The Temple of Sobek, which still stands near the banks of the Nile today, housed fierce Nile crocodiles that an unfortunate priest would be tasked with feeding. The creatures were so revered that they were mummified after death. What the Egyptians didn’t know thousands of years ago was that crocodiles had ancestors in the same land who were far more ancient.

Even the name of *Wadisuchus kassabi *comes from *Suchus, *the ancient Greek translation of the Coptic *Souk *for Sobek. This new species and genus of Early Cretaceous crocodyliform is related to a larger group known as dyrosaurids. It surfaced from the Campanian Quseir Formation near the Kharga and Baris Oases in the Egyptian Western Desert. 80 million years ago, what is now dry was lush and humid, with shallow lagoons where it could stalk its prey underwater. Excavations by the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology team have unearthed crocodilyform fossils in the region since 2008.

Led by paleontologist Sara Saber, the team’s most recent discovery was found in layers of glaucous sandstone, greenish siltstone and gray claystone that had once been lagoon sediments. They unearthed two partial skulls and two snout tips that belonged to individuals that died during different stages of growth. CT scans of the fossils revealed *Wadisuchus kassabi, *also named for the Arabic word for valley (wadi) and esteemed paleontologist Ahmed Kassab, was about 11.5 to 13 feet (3.5-4 meters) long. These fossils also offer insight into the evolution and survival of dyrosaurids before and after the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, which was triggered by the infamous Chicxulub asteroid impact and eradicated 76 percent of species on Earth.

Wadisuchus is now considered the oldest known dyrosaurid. The features of *Wadisuchus *suggest that it was not quite like its predecessors, but hadn’t yet evolved to resemble crocodyliform species that came after it went extinct. The adaptations in its bite are a giveaway. Its rows of dagger teeth were not unlike those of existing crocodiles, but it had four teeth at the front of its snout instead of the five seen in more primitive species, a deep notch where the jaws met at the end of the snout, and nostrils at the top of its snout that enabled it to breathe while being mostly submerged. This might have been the earliest dyrosaurid to begin undergoing an evolutionary transition. Its age also pushes back the emergence and diversification of Dryosauridae in Africa by at least 11 million years.

“*Wadisuchus *provides critical insights into the early diversification, palaeobiogeography, and cranial evolution of Dyrosauridae, confirming longirostry as an early-acquired trait and highlighting North Africa as a key region in their origin,” Saber said in a study recently published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Crocodylomorphs encompass all extant and extinct crocodilians. In ancient crocodylomorphs, several species were known for longirostry, or having a long, narrow snout. Gharials are the extant species whose snouts are the longest and narrowest. Their jaws are suited for snapping up fish and the occasional turtle, something the semi-aquatic *Wadisuchus *is also thought to have done as it swam among fish and turtles in freshwater and saltwater environments. Longirostry does have a downside. This kind of morphology can sometimes lead to sinus infections and nosebleeds in gharials, which have only one nostril and often suffer fro a deviated septum that interferes with their breathing. Whether Wadisuchus was prone to any of these problems is unknown.

*Wadisuchus *was not the only crocodile ancestor to crawl out of the land of Sobek. *Wahasuchus egyptensis, *which also represented a new genus and species when it was discovered in 2018, lived in the same region during the Late Cretaceous. Maybe ancient Egyptian crocodile worship was onto something, but nobody would have wanted to be the trembling priest who dared to enter the Temple of Sobek at feeding time.

Elizabeth Rayne is a creature who writes. Her work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Ars Technica, SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Den of Geek, Forbidden Futures and Collective Tales. She lurks right outside New York City with her parrot, Lestat. When not writing, she can be found drawing, playing the piano or shapeshifting.