The lectotype specimens, MNHN 8605-09, 8787-89, 8793-94, 8907, were probably found at the coast in layers of the Falaises des Vaches Noires near Calvados, dating from the late Callovian or early Oxfordian, about 161 million years old. They consist of several vertebrae series, single vertebrae, a partial left pubis and limb elements. The longest vertebra has a length of 97 millimetres, indicating a total body length of about seven metres. Also a partial left femur, MNHN 9645, has been referred. "Streptospondylus" has been diagnosed by several osteological details, among which the possession of two hypapophyses on the, ventrally flat, anterior dorsal vertebrae and the particular connection between the astragalus and the tibia, without a posterior astragalar process but with a distinctive buttress on the tibia above the anterior process.