Its exact affinities are unknown and it is currently assigned to the form genus Araucarites of the family Araucariaceae.

[1] These fossils are found together with two types of highly distinctive cones (presumed to be female) that show affinities to both Araucariaceae and Cupressaceae (cypresses).

[2] The specific name is a Latinized form of "Santa Cruz", the Argentinean province from which the Cerro Cuadrado Petrified Forest is found.

[3] The Cerro Cuadrado Petrified Forest is part of the La Matilde Formation, dated to the Bathonian to Oxfordian ages (164.7 to 155.7 million years ago) of the Middle to Upper Jurassic.

[4][5] The area was once part of the subtropical and temperate regions of the southern supercontinent Gondwana in the Mesozoic era, a more or less continuous landmass consisting of what is now modern South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea.