Based on the many fossil finds of false gharial relatives from North Africa and Europe, palaeontologists believe that this crocodile species originated more than 50 million years ago in the western Tethys, a precursor to today’s Mediterranean Sea. However, little is known about how, why and when exactly the species reached its current range in South Asia.
The newly-described species was named Maomingosuchus acutirostris (acutirostris is Latin for "the pointy-snouted one") and - along with known crocodile species from southern China and Thailand - is the oldest representative of the false gharial relatives in Asia. ...
