Bergisuchus
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Bergisuchus Temporal range: Eocene |
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| Bergisuchus dietrichbergi mandible | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Branch: | †Sebecosuchia |
| Clade: | †Sebecia |
| 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 South America, and later assigned to in 1988. Later that year it was reclassified as a basal baurusuchid. In 2000, the genus was given its own family, Bergisuchidae.
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. 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.
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