It is based on an incomplete skeleton which was found in the Valanginian-age Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation.

These remains were in 2001 recovered from near the top of the Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation, in east-central Utah.

[1] The Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation is commonly sub-divided into "lower" and "upper" layers, with distinct fauna being found within each.

The Upper Yellow Cat Member, where Cedrorestes was found, also contains the fossils of several other dinosaur species, including the ornithopod Hippodraco, an as-yet-unnamed species of sail-backed iguanodontid, the armored dinosaur Gastonia, the brachiosaurid sauropod Cedarosaurus, the turiasaurian sauropod Moabosaurus, the primitive ornithomimosaur Nedcolbertia, the theropod Martharaptor (which might either be a therizinosaur or an oviraptorosaur), and the large dromaeosaurid Utahraptor.

[3] Whether a basal hadrosaurid or derived non-hadrosaurid iguanodontian, Cedrorestes would have been a large herbivore capable of moving both bipedally or on all fours.