Historically, the toucan barbet was placed with the other barbets in the large family Capitonidae. This family included African and Asian representatives. DNA studies published in 1994 and 1999 and an examination of the morphology of the family in 1988 found that this arrangement was paraphyletic, as the New World barbets are more closely related to the toucans (family Ramphastidae) than they are to the Old World barbets. In particular, a close phylogenetic relationship between the genus "Semnornis" (which contains the toucan barbet) and toucans was found. The two lineages were more closely related to each other than even "Semnornis" and the other New World barbets. This led to a breakup of the barbet family, and the separate lineages are now considered to be distinct families; the toucan barbet is, together with the prong-billed barbet, now placed into the family Semnornithidae. An alternative arrangement is to combine all the barbets and the toucans into a single family, which due to priority would be the toucan family Ramphastidae.