Lariosaurus balsami was named by Curioni (1841). Its type specimen is destroyed during World War II: a cast is preserved at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Milano, a partial skeleton (cervical and anterior dorsal regions and parts of the forelimbs), and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Quarry between Varenna and Regoledo, Perledo (SMF collection), which is in a Longobardian marine limestone in the Perledo-Varenna Formation of Italy.