The Tiourarén was originally thought to represent the Hauterivian to Barremian stages of the early Cretaceous Period, or approximately 132 to 125 million years ago (Sereno et al. 1994).

However, re-interpretation of the sediments showed that they are probably Middle to Late Jurassic in age, dating Afrovenator to the Bathonian to Oxfordian stages, between 167 and 161 mya.

The primary author was well-known American paleontologist Paul Sereno, with Jeffrey Wilson, Hans Larsson, Didier Dutheil, and Hans-Dieter Sues as coauthors.

[6] Judging from the one skeleton known, this dinosaur was about 8 meters (26 feet) long, from snout to tail tip, and had a weight of about 1 tonne according to Gregory S.

[3] The teeth wear distinctive proximodistally subrectangular distocentral denticles and a sigmoidal shape in distal view, seen also on Torvosaurus.

[12] New specimens uncovered recently have record an updated premaxillae that shows a nasal process with a less steep angle than previously thought, giving Afrovenator a slightly larger nostril.

In Sereno's original description, Afrovenator was found to be a basal spinosauroid (he at the time used the name "Torvosauroidea"), outside of Spinosauridae and Megalosauridae (which he called "Torvosauridae").

[3] Finally, another recent study places Afrovenator outside of the Megalosauroidea completely, and instead finds it more closely related to Allosaurus (Rauhut 2003).

In a revision of Carnosauria led by the discovery of the basal Allosauroid Asfaltovenator recovering a paraphyletic Megalosauroidea, but was later re-recovered as a monophyletic group, with Afrovenator alone, and taxa referred previously to Afrovenatorinae such as Dubreuillosaurus, Magnosaurus and Piveteausaurus clading with Eustreptospondylus.

[13] Coelurosauria Monolophosaurus Chuandongocoelurus Marshosaurus Condorraptor Piatnitzkysaurus Poekilopleuron Asfaltovenator Lourinhanosaurus Xuanhanosaurus Metriacanthosauridae Saurophaganax Allosaurus Carcharodontosauria Spinosauridae Dubreuillosaurus Magnosaurus Eustreptospondylus Streptospondylus Duriavenator Afrovenator Piveteausaurus Leshansaurus Megalosaurus Torvosaurus Wiehenvenator