In 1995, pterosaur researcher Chris Bennett published an extensive review of the currently recognized German species. Bennett concluded that all the supposedly distinct German species were actually different year-classes of a single species, "R. muensteri", representing distinct age groups, with the smaller species being juveniles and the larger adults. Bennett's paper did not cover the British and African species, though he suggested that these should be considered indeterminate members of the family Rhamphorhynchidae and not necessarily species of "Rhamphorhynchus" itself. Despite the reduction of the genus to a single species, the type species remains "R. longicaudus".