Both specimens come from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, with an estimated date of 120 million years ago.

[2] In 1869, British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley assigned remains he found to a new species of pterosaur called Ptenodactylus machaerorhynchus,[3][4] at the same time disclaiming the name which makes it invalid by modern standards.

In 1870, Seeley had realized that the generic name Ptenodactylus had been preoccupied and renamed the species into Ornithocheirus machaerorhynchus.

[4] In 2013, paleontologists Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Kellner made an extensive review of the species of Ornithocheirus, and stated that the generic name Lonchodectes would have been a nomen dubium, and therefore reassigned both Lonchodectes machaerorhynchus and L. microdon into the genus Lonchodraco, creating Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus and L.

In the analyses, they recovered Ikrandraco as a member of the family Lonchodraconidae, and the sister taxon of Lonchodraco.

[9] Lonchodraco Ikrandraco Haopterus Hongshanopterus Nurhachius Istiodactylus Liaoxipterus Boreopterus Zhenyuanopterus Ornithocheirus Targaryendraconidae Cimoliopteridae Hamipteridae Anhangueridae Wang et al. interpreted the crest as a possible adaptation for skim fishing, although they did not regard this as the animal's main method of foraging.

The hook on the crest may have been an attachment point for a throat pouch for storing food, akin to a pelican.