The holotype of Dorateuthis, a near-complete specimen (BMNH C5017) was discovered in the Sahel Alma fossil site, near Beirut, Lebanon, then part of Syria.

It entered the collection of Reverend Edwin R. Lewis, a professor in the American University of Beirut (then the Syrian Protestant College), where it subsequently came to the attention of British geologist Robert Damon.

[3] Behind the cephalic cartilage of Dorateuthis is a mass of soft tissue that corresponds with the oesophagus, and may represent either the optic lobes or the rest of the brain.

The stomach of one specimen preserves fin rays and a pelvic girdle from a teleost, and fish bones were found in the caecum and another part of the digestive system, suggesting that Dorateuthis predated on them.

[3] Dorateuthis' gladius bore prominent lateral keels, similar to the contemporary Boreopeltis, which likely increased overall rigidity.

This, its prominent eyes, and the presence of fish remains in its digestive tract, suggest that Dorateuthis was an active predator.