Lazarussuchus  Lazarussuchus (meaning "Lazarus's crocodile") is a genus of basal choristodere, a type of amphibious reptile, known from France, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Fossils have been found in Late Paleocene, Late Oligocene, and Early Miocene deposits, meaning that the genus lasted about 40 million years. Two species have been named: the type species "L. inexpectatus" ("unexpected") (Hecht, 1992) from the late Oligocene of France and Germany and "L. dvoraki" (for Zdeněk Dvořák) from the early Miocene of the Czech Republic. It was not a large animal; the skull of "L. inexpectatus" was only about 4.53 centimeters long (1.78 in). A complete specimen of "Lazarussuchus" with preserved soft tissue was found from the Late Paleocene of France, but has not been assigned to a species. "Lazarussuchus" is the youngest member of the group Choristodera and the only choristodere to have lived after the Eocene. Choristoderes were once thought to have gone extinct at the start of the Eocene, possibly due to climatic changes happening at this time, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. The first known fossils of "Lazarussuchus" came from the Late Oligocene, meaning that it extended the fossil range of Choristodera by several million years. At the time of its discovery "Lazarussuchus" was considered an example of the Lazarus effect because its "unexpected" presence followed a long gap in the choristodere fossil record. However, older specimens of "Lazarussuchus" have been found that extend its fossil range to before the Eocene, closing the apparent gap in the record. "Lazarussuchus" was initially interpreted as the basalmost member of Choristodera, meaning that its lineage must have been the earliest to branch off from the group. Since the first definitive choristoderes appear in the Middle Jurassic, the lineage represented by "Lazarussuchus" implied a very long ghost lineage of choristoderes spanning at least 100 million years. The "Lazarussuchus" lineage may have been able to survive for such a long period of time and outlast all other choristodere lineages because they were small in size and had generalized, lizard-like body forms that enabled them to cope with environmental changes.