Temporal range: Eocene, Lutetian
Restored B. magnifrons skeleton
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Crocodylomorpha
Order: Crocodilia
Family: Planocraniidae
Genus: Boverisuchus
Kuhn, 1938
Type species
Boverisuchus magnifrons
Kuhn, 1938
  • B. magnifrons Kuhn, 1938
  • B. vorax (Troxell, 1925)
  • Crocodylus vorax Troxell, 1925
  • Pristichampsus vorax (Troxell, 1925) Langston, 1975
  • Weigeltisuchus Kuhn, 1938
  • Weigeltisuchus geiseltalensis Kuhn, 1938

Boverisuchus is an extinct genus of planocraniid crocodylian known from the middle Eocene (Lutetian stage) of Germany and western North America.[1] It grew to approximately three metres (10 ft) in length.

Skull of B. magnifrons ("W. geiseltalensis") in the Geisel valley museum

The type species Boverisuchus magnifrons was first named by paleontologist Oskar Kuhn in 1938, from the Lutetian of Germany alongside Weigeltisuchus geiseltalensis. Most paleontologists have considered both species to represent junior synonyms of the type species of Pristichampsus, P. rollinatii. Following a revision of the genus Pristichampsus by Brochu (2013), P. rollinati was found to be based on insufficiently diagnostic material and therefore is a nomen dubium while Boverisuchus was reinstated as a valid genus. Brochu (2013) also assigned Crocodylus vorax, which has been referred to as Pristichampsus vorax since Langston (1975), as the second species of Boverisuchus. According to Brochu (2013), material from the middle Eocene of Italy and Texas may represent another yet unnamed species. The two Asian species of Planocrania were found to be most closely related to Boverisuchus using a phylogenetic analysis. The name Planocraniidae was reinstated to contain these genera and replace Pristichampsidae.[1]


  1. 1 2 Brochu, C. A. (2013). "Phylogenetic relationships of Palaeogene ziphodont eusuchians and the status of Pristichampsus Gervais, 1853". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: 1. doi:10.1017/S1755691013000200.