[2][3][4] Ekaltadeta was present in what is today the Riversleigh formations in Northern Queensland from the Late Oligocene to the Miocene, and the genus includes three species.

[5][6] The genus is hypothesized to have been either exclusively carnivorous, or omnivorous with a fondness for meat, based on the chewing teeth found in fossils.

[6] This conclusion is based mainly on the size and shape of a large buzz-saw-shaped cheek-tooth, the adult third premolar, which is common to all Ekaltadeta.

[2][4][9] The diagnosis of the genus was revised in a 1996 study by Stephen Wroe of propleopine taxa, after new fossil specimens allowed for comparison with the type material and showcased new characteristics.

[3] A largely complete skull of E. ima was described by Wroe in 1998, prompting another reinvestigation of the propleonine clade which the author had suggested contained paraphyletic and polyphyletic species.