Birgeria
| Birgeria Temporal range: Early–Late Triassic (Griesbachian–Rhaetian) | |
|---|---|
| Fossil of Birgeria acuminata, Civic Museum of Natural Science, Bergamo, Italy. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | †Birgeriiformes Heyler, 1969 |
| Family: | †Birgeriidae Aldinger, 1937 |
| Genus: | †Birgeria Stensiö, 1919 |
| Type species | |
| †Saurichthys mougeoti Agassiz, 1844 | |
| Species | |
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See text | |
| Synonyms | |
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Birgeria is a genus of carnivorous marine ray-finned fish from the Triassic period. Birgeria had a global distribution, with fossil known from Madagascar, Spitsbergen, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, China, Russia, Canada and Nevada, United States. The oldest fossils are from Griesbachian aged beds of the Wordie Creek Formation of East Greenland. Birgeria existed throughout the entire Triassic period, from the very beginning just after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, up to the very end with its extinction during the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction.
The type species was first described as Saurichthys mougeoti. Following a reinvestigation, Erik Stensiö concluded that this species cannot be ascribed to Saurichthys. He thus erected a new genus, which he named after his colleague Birger Sjöström, who had joined him on an expedition to the Arctic island of Spitsbergen (Svalbard) in 1915.