Cricosaurus bambergensis was named by Sachs et al. (2019) [A member of Cricosaurus with the following unique combination of characters (proposed autapomorphic characters are indicated by an asterisk): bicarinate dentition, lacking conspicuous enamel ornamentation; tooth crowns in the premaxilla, maxilla and dentary show distinct labiolingual compression (shared with C. suevicus and C. elegans); the maxillary tooth row continues posteriorly past the anterior margin of the orbit (thalattosuchian symplesiomorphy); presence of pronounced reception pits for dentary tooth crowns on the lateral margins of the anterior and mid-portions of the maxilla; palatines have a distinct midline ridge with paired depressions on either side*; morphology of the tail displacement unit: the distal-most three preflexural vertebrae have neural spines that are oriented very strongly posteriorly, their posterior margin lies on top of the prezygapophyses of the adjacent vertebra; these neural spines appear almost rod-like in lateral view; the three vertebrae anterior to them have a similar morphology, but the neural spines look more like a “regular” neural spine, albeit strongly oriented posteriorly. Cricosaurus bambergensis retains the following four metriorhynchid tail fluke symplesiomorphies (unlike C. suevicus): (i) the distal-most preflexural caudal vertebra has a rod-like hemapophysis; (ii) the proximal-most five or six flexural vertebrae have anteriorly oriented neural spines, but not strongly oriented anteriorly; (iii) the flexural hemapophyses contact one another along their anterior–posterior margins; and (iv) the distal-most postflexural hemapophysis return to a rod-like morphology.]. Its type specimen is NKMB-P-Watt14/274, a skeleton (almost complete skeleton), and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Kalk- und Dolomitbruch der Andreas Schorr GmbH, which is in a Kimmeridgian lagoonal/restricted shallow subtidal carbonate in the Torleite Formation of Germany.