Avalonnectes arturi was named by Benson et al. (2012) [urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:27A8C8C1-5F02-4​61E-9778-2DB9E2645061]. Its type specimen is AGT uncatalogued (Alfred Gillett Trust, Street, Somerset, UK), a skeleton (the posterior portion of the skull, and a partial postcranial skeleton), and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Street (general), which is in a Hettangian shallow subtidal limestone/shale in the Blue Lias Formation of the United Kingdom. It is the type species of Avalonnectes.