 Lonchodectidae was first named by Reginald Walter Hooley in 1914, and was first considered to only contain species of "Lonchodectes".A taxonomic review of pterosaurs from the Cambridge Greensand in 2013 considered "Lonchodectes" a "nomen dubium", and named a new family, Lonchodraconidae, for the remaining species, which had been moved to the new genus "Lonchodraco".