Lithostrotia is derived from the Ancient Greek lithostros, meaning "inlaid with stones", referring to the fact that many known lithostrotians are preserved with osteoderms.

[10] The possibly equivalent clade Titanosauridae was positioned in a phylogenetic analysis by Calvo et al. (2007), where it included all titanosaurs apart from Andesaurus, though multiple primitive forms were not analyzed.

This analysis found that Andesaurus, Argentinosaurus and Epachthosaurus were within Titanosauria but outside Lithostrotia, and the latter group included Malawisaurus, Nemegtosaurus, Diamantinasaurus, Tapuiasaurus and Alamosaurus as basal lithostrotians outside Saltasauridae.

[14] Another phylogenetic analysis by Poropat and colleagues in 2016, partially reproduced below, found Diamantinasaurus as a non-lithostrotian titanosaur and the sister taxon of the contemporary Savannasaurus.

[17] Poropat et al. (2016) Andesaurus Dongyangosaurus Baotianmansaurus Ligabuesaurus Savannasaurus Diamantinasaurus Xianshanosaurus Daxiatitan Malawisaurus Muyelensaurus Futalognkosaurus Epachthosaurus Tapuiasaurus Nemegtosaurus Isisaurus Saltasaurus Opisthocoelicaudia Jiangshanosaurus Alamosaurus Mocho et al. (2019) Malawisaurus Paludititan Lohuecotitan Epachthosaurus Alamosaurus Opisthocoelicaudia Neuquensaurus Rocasaurus Saltasaurus Lirainosaurus Atsinganosaurus Ampelosaurus Bonatitan Rapetosaurus Nemegtosaurus Gondwanatitan Aeolosaurus Rinconsaurus Muyelensaurus Bonitasaura Mendozasaurus Futalognkosaurus

These incongruent results are because of the instability of the defining taxon Malawisaurus, which may in fact represent a chimaeric assemblage of remains and requires re-evaluation to determine what Lithostrotia includes.