Parotosaurus orenburgensis was named by Konzhukova (1968). Its type specimen is PIN 951/42, a skull, and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Rassypnaya locality, PIN 951, which is in an Olenekian terrestrial sandstone/sandstone in the Petropavlovka Formation of the Russian Federation.

It was recombined as Parotosuchus orenburgensis by Konzhukova (1965), Schoch and Milner (2000), Damiani (2001).