Wignall and Benton defined Lazarus taxon as, ‘At times of biotic crisis many taxa go extinct, but others only temporarily disappeared from the fossil record, often for intervals measured in millions of years, before reappearing unchanged’.     

Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie Thy soul’s immensity;
 Thou best philosopher, who yet dost keep
Thy heritage, thou eye among the blind,
That, deaf and silent, read’st the eternal deep,
Haunted forever by the eternal Mind…