Its skull was broad, with laterally-directed temporal openings and a sharply tapering snout, similar to extant fossorial animals.

Most of these invalid species were incorrectly identified as distinct due to taphonomic differences as well as ontogenetic change and sexual dimorphism.

[3][4] Some fossils of a cistecephalid from the Kundaram Formation of India were regarded as belonging to Cistecephalus, but have since been assigned to a separate genus, Sauroscaptor.

[2] Cistecephalus is derived from the Greek words κίστη ("box") and κεφαλή ("head"), and was spelled Kistecephalus until emended by Richard Lydekker in 1890.

[2][10][11] Diictodon Eosimops Prosictodon Robertia Emydops Dicynodontoides Kombuisia Digalodon Myosaurus Sauroscaptor Cistecephalus Cistecephaloides Kawingasaurus Bidentalia