Diagnosis is revised form of Sobral et al. (2015)

Elachistosuchus huenei was named by Janensch (1949) [Small diapsid reptile with distinct posterolateral process of frontal, maxillary tooth row extending posterior to posterior margin of orbit, jugal with free posterior process, palatine ramus of pterygoid with shagreen of teeth, angular exposed along about one third of lateral surface of mandibular ramus, trunk ribs dichocephalous, notched anterior margin of interclavicle, posterior process of interclavicle spatulate.]. Its type specimen is MB.R. 4520, a partial skeleton (partial skeleton comprising a nearly complete but crushed skull, articulated posterior cervical and anterior dorsal vertebrae with rib fragments, right humerus,), and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Baerecke-Limpricht clay pit, Halberstadt (bed 18), which is in a Rhaetian floodplain claystone/sandstone in the Trossingen Formation of Germany.