[1] The first fossils of Langstonia were discovered in the province of Huila in Colombia by the Spanish geologist José Royo y Gómez, during the expeditions in the region by the American paleontologist Robert Stirton.

[3] As for the sebecid material he designated the dentary UCMP 37877 as the holotype of a new species a fragmentary taxon, which he called Sebecus huilensis; [4] thus extending the time range of this genus and the family, hitherto known only from remains of the Eocene of Argentina.

[6] Subsequently, Éric Buffetaut and Robert Hoffstetter (1977) reported from the Ipururo Formation in the Amazon region of Peru the presence of a huge cranial portion (area of the snout), referring it to this genus, and although its age coincides with S. huilensis, distinguished it through it being larger and more robust.

[7] Arthur Busbey (1986) later brought new remains of the species also from the "Monkey Beds" of Huila in Colombia, this time a fragment of premaxilla, smaller than S. icaeorhinus, and equally thin.

[9] Langston, along with the Argentine paleontologist Zulma Gasparini, reported new remains of the species in a contribution on fossil crocodylomorphs of Colombia for the book Vertebrate Paleontology of the Neotropics: The Miocene Fauna of La Venta (1997).

In their article they considered that the traits of two species of Sebecus, S. huilensis and S. querejazus of Paleocene of Bolivia, and their age justified the creation of separate genres for both: S. huilensis was given the genus Langstonia, in honor of its initial descriptor and his "(..)advances in knowledge of crocodylians of Tertiary Colombia in particular and South America in general", [11] while S. querejazus was renamed Zulmasuchus, although some authors [12] [13] [14] still maintain both species within Sebecus.

The last sebecids, Langstonia and Barinasuchus were likely apex predators in their environment, and as an effect they would be particularly susceptible to ecological changes that caused other lineages, particularly hoofed mammals (such as groups Astrapotheria, Leontiniidae, Adianthidae and Notohippidae) to die out, thus leading to extinction to the last notosuchian crocodilomorphs of the world.

[37] As noted earlier, this species formerly part of the genus Sebecus and phylogenetic analyzes have consistently shown that these forms a clade within Sebecidae next to S. icaeorhinus and Zulmasuchus, not so closely related to Barinasuchus and Bretesuchus.