 "Limnoscelis" "paludis" was finally described in 1911 by the paleontologist Samuel Wendell Williston, who discovered three specimens of the genus in the Yale Peabody Museum collections.These included one relatively complete articulated specimen which included the skull (the holotype, YPM 811), and two less-complete post-cranial skeletons (MCZ 1947 and MCZ 1948, formerly YPM 819 and YPM 809 respectively).Williston named the fossil "Limnoscelis paludis", referencing the marsh-like environment that he hypothesized "Limnoscelis" might have inhabited.