Pachystropheus (After Greek Pachys, "Thick" and Strophaios, Vertebrae) is a genus of prehistoric reptile, possibly a choristodere (champsosaur), from the Rhaetian (Late Triassic) of southwestern England. It was named by Erika von Huene in 1935; Huene described Pachystropheus as a champsosaur, but this was overlooked for decades until its redescription by Storrs and Gower in 1993. This reevalution would extend the fossil record of champsosaurs back 45 million years. However, other authors consider attribution of Pachystropheus to Choristodera problematic, stating that it depends on vertebral and girdle characters that are also found in the skeletons of aquatic reptiles other than choristoderes; most of the diagnostic features of choristoderes are skull features, but the presence of these ca