It was collected from the Jingangshan Bed of the Yixian Formation, dating to the early Aptian stage, about 121 million years ago.

It was named by Lü Junchang, Ji Qiang, Wei Xuefang and Liu Yongqing in 2012 and the type species is Gladocephaloideus jingangshanensis.

[1] The holotype, IG-CAGS-08-07, includes the almost complete skull, the lower jaws, the front neck vertebrae and part of a hindlimb.

The pycnofibres in the holotype are visible as short hairs, pointing to the rear, at the back of the skull and the neck vertebrae.

The cladogram presented below shows the phylogenetic analysis recovering Gladocephaloideus as a ctenochasmatid, conducted by Lü and colleagues.

[2] Cathayopterus Pterodaustro Ctenochasma Gegepterus Eosipterus Cearadactylus Gnathosaurus Pterodactylus longicolum Pterofiltrus Gladocephaloideus Elanodactylus Beipiaopterus Feilongus Moganopterus