[2] Dyrosaurus have been inferred to have been ectothermic on the basis of bone histology and stable isotope analysis.

[4] French paleontologist Auguste Pomel named the genus Dyrosaurus in 1894 for Djebel Dyr, a mountain near Tebessa in Algeria where its fossilized vertebrae were found in a phosphate mine.

[5][6][7] In 1903, the family Dyrosauridae was named by Giuseppe de Stefano referring to the locality for the holotype was found in Djebel Dyr, Algeria.

[8] Thévenin (1911a, 1911b), with some better preserved material, recognized that Dyrosaurus phosphaticus was a Lower Eocene crocodyliform.

Many dyrosaurid remains are known, but unfortunately they are often poorly preserved which makes it difficult for paleontologists to get a strong understanding of the family.