| Bergisuchus Temporal range: Eocene |
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|---|---|
| Bergisuchus dietrichbergi mandible | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Suborder: | †Notosuchia |
| (unranked): | †Sebecosuchia |
| Family: | †Bergisuchidae Rossmann et al., 2000 |
| Genus: | †Bergisuchus Berg, 1966 |
| Species | |
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Bergisuchus is an extinct genus of sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian. Fossils have been found from the Eocene Messel Pit in Germany. Bergisuchus was originally classified as a sebecosuchian, supposedly the first to be found outside of South America, and later assigned to Trematochampsidae in 1988.[1] Later that year it was reclassified as a basal baurusuchid.[2] In 2000, the genus was given its own family, Bergisuchidae.[3]
Bergisuchus is known from a holotype rostrum from the Messel Pit, first described in 1966, and a mandible from an open-pit coal mine near Halle in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.[3] The Messel Pit is famous for its well-preserved fossils, which include semiaquatic crocodyliforms such as Asiatosuchus and Diplocynodon. Unlike other crocodyliforms present in the Messel Pit, Bergisuchus was a small terrestrial hypercarnivore.[4]