In 1874 Richard Owen, rejecting the creation by Harry Govier Seeley of the genus Ornithocheirus, named a species Coloborhynchus clavirostris based on holotype BMNH 1822, a partial snout from the Hastings Beds of the Wealden Group of East Sussex, England.

Owen considered the defining trait of the genus to be the location of the front tooth pairs high on the side of the upper jaws.

Rodrigues and Kellner argued that Lee's C. wadleighi, which possessed some differences in the skull and teeth from C. clavirostris, and from an earlier time period, belonged in its own genus, which they named Uktenadactylus.

Rodrigues and Kellner disagreed with this classification, however, noting that both did not possess the unique straightened crest beginning at the snout tip, or sideways pointed teeth, of C. clavirostris.

It shares one or two characters in common with C. clavirostris (such as a flattened upper surface of the snout), though Rodrigues and Kellner regarded them as dubious, and noted that they are also present in other genera.

[4] In 2001, Unwin also reassigned the two other species from the Cambridge Greensand to Coloborhynchus: C. capito and C. sedgwickii, the second of which being one of the original members of the genus according to Richard Owen in 1874.

He noted that C. sedgwicki does not possess the unique features of C. clavirostris (in fact it lacks a crest altogether), and may instead belong to the same genus as "Ornithocheirus" compressirostris (=Lonchodectes).

[6] A 2020 review of Coloborhynchinae by Holgado and Pêgas moved both C. capito and C. fluviferox to a new genus, Nicorhynchus, and also referred the unnamed Ifezouane Formation coloborhynchine to N.

Therefore, according to Rodrigues and Kellner's 2008 re-evaluation on Coloborhynchus clavirostris, it can only be differentiated from its relatives based on its unique combination of tooth socket positions.

A referred specimen from the Cambridge Greensand of England described in 2011 consists of a very large upper jaw tip which displays the tooth characteristics that distinguish C. capito from other species.

If the proportions of this specimen were consistent with other known species of Coloborhynchus, the total skull length could have been up to 75 cm, leading to an estimated wingspan of 7 metres (23 ft).

[14] Guidraco Brasileodactylus Ludodactylus Cearadactylus Liaoningopterus Anhanguera Tropeognathus Coloborhynchus Ornithocheirus Ferrodraco Mythunga Topology 2: Holgado & Pêgas (2020).

[7] Siroccopteryx Tropeognathus Mythunga Ferrodraco Aerodraco Coloborhynchus Nicorhynchus Uktenadactylus Caulkicephalus Guidraco Ludodactylus Liaoningopterus Cearadactylus Maaradactylus Anhanguera