[3] Pristichampsus was first described and named as a species of Crocodylus, C. rollinatii, by John Edward Gray in 1831 on the basis of remains from the Lutetian Sables du Castrais Formation of France.

The genera Boverisuchus and Weigeltisuchus from the Lutetian of Germany as well as Limnosaurus from North America were synonymized with Pristichampsus and their type species were reassigned to it.

Langston (1975) found Limnosaurus to be based on non-diagnostic remains, and therefore considered it to be in its own genus, as a nomen dubium.

Efimov (1988) named two additional species of Pristichampsus, P. birjukovi and P. kuznetzovi from the Middle Eocene of Eastern Kazakhstan.

Following a revision of the genus Pristichampsus by Brochu (2013), P. rollinatii was found to be based on insufficiently diagnostic material and therefore is a nomen dubium.