Bergisuchus
Extinct genus of reptiles / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Bergisuchus is an extinct genus of small sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian known primarily from the Eocene Messel Pit in Germany. Few fossils of Bergisuchus have been discovered, only a single incomplete snout, a few partial lower jaws and some teeth. Despite being fragmentary, the jaw bones are enough to indicate that Bergisuchus had a short, deep, narrow snout and serrated teeth, quite unlike the broad flat snouts of modern crocodylians.
Bergisuchus | |
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Bergisuchus dietrichbergi holotype mandible, HLMD-Me 7003. | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauria |
Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
Clade: | Crocodyliformes |
Clade: | †Notosuchia |
Clade: | †Sebecosuchia |
Clade: | †Sebecia |
Family: | †Bergisuchidae Rossmann, Rauhe & Ortega 2000 |
Genus: | †Bergisuchus Kuhn, 1968 |
Species: | †B. dietrichbergi |
Binomial name | |
†Bergisuchus dietrichbergi Kuhn, 1968 | |
As with other sebecosuchians, it is likely that Bergisuchus was a fast, terrestrial predator and not an aquatic ambush hunter like modern crocodylians. Its presence in Europe is also unusual, as later sebecosuchians were restricted entirely to South America, and so Bergisuchus indicates the group was once much more widespread in the early Cenozoic.