It lived during the Early Cretaceous (Aptian to Albian stages) around 121-113 million years ago.

Estimated to measure around 4 m (13 ft) in length and weighing proximately 560 kg (1,230 lb), Craterosaurus may actually be a junior synonym of Regnosaurus,[1] but only one fossil, a partial vertebra, was recovered.

The holotype was discovered near Potton by a Mr. Charlesworth, and the type (and only known) species is Craterosaurus pottonensis, described in 1874 by Harry Seeley.

Seeley mistook the fossil, holotype SMC B.28814, for the base of a cranium.

Franz Nopcsa in 1912 correctly identified it as the front part of a neural arch.