Named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, in 1841, it is usually thought to contain a single genus, Ichthyosaurus, which is known from several species from the Early Jurassic.

[1] Fischer et al. (2013) applied the name Ichthyosauridae Bonaparte, 1841 for the clade that contains Malawania anachronus and Ichthyosaurus communis.

Most other phylogenetic analyses, that were based on smaller matrices, also recovered this clade or found M. anachronus to be in a more basal position.

Ichthyosauridae was recovered as the sister taxon of Baracromia, a clade first defined by Fischer et al. (2013) that includes all other thunnosaurs.

[1] Mikadocephalus gracilirostris Hudsonelpidia brevirostris Macgowania janiceps Temnodontosaurus Leptonectes tenuirostris Eurhinosaurus longirostris Excalibosaurus costini Suevoleviathan disinteger Hauffiopteryx typicus Ichthyosaurus communis Malawania anachronus Stenopterygius quadriscissus Chacaicosaurus cayi Arthropterygius chrisorum Mollesaurus periallus Ophthalmosaurus icenicus (type species) Baptanodon natans ("O."