Although Newton originally considered "Parapsicephalus" as being a species of "Scaphognathus", Arthaber remarked that it was actually more similar to "Dimorphodon" instead. The prevailing view since Arthaber's renaming of "Parapsicephalus" as a distinct genus has been that "Parapsicephalus" represents some kind of rhamphorhynchid, although several phylogenies by Brian Andres and colleagues supported Arthaber's hypothesis of it being closely affiliated with "Dimorphodon". Characters which support this placement include the convex top of the skull, the pear-shaped eye socket, the angle of the quadrate, and the thick jugal. The topology recovered by Andres and Myers in 2013, showing "Parapsicephalus" as a dimorphodontian, is reproduced below.