Parringtonia gracilis was named by Huene (1939). Its type specimen is NHMUK R8646, a partial skeleton (relatively complete right maxilla, five nearly complete dorsal vertebrae, two dorsal centra, two partial dorsal neural arches, three caudal vertebrae, five oste), and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Parrington, Upper Bone Bed, Ruhuhu (Loc. B 15/1), which is in an Anisian fluvial-deltaic sandstone/siltstone in the Manda Beds Formation of Tanzania. It is the type species of Parringtonia.