Araeoscelidia is often considered the most basal group of diapsid reptiles, but some analyses have recovered them as stem-amniotes instead.

[3][4] Araeoscelis was around 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) long, and superficially resembled a modern lizard.

It differed from other araeoscelidians, such as Petrolacosaurus, in that its teeth were larger and blunter; possibly they were used for cracking insect carapaces.

[5] Unlike Petrolacosaurus, which possessed the two pairs of skull openings characteristic of diapsids, in Araeoscelis the lower pair of temporal fenestrae were closed with bone, resulting in a euryapsid condition.

[5] Footprints found in Nova Scotia have been attributed to Araeoscelis or a close relative.