It lived during the Guadalupian epoch of the Permian in what is now Russia, and inhabited an environment alongside some of the last non-therapsid synapsids, such as the caseasaur Ennatosaurus and the varanopid Mesenosaurus.

Its phylogenetic affinities are controversial; it has been classified as a biarmosuchian, dinocephalian, or anomodont, and it has also been suggested to belong to a lineage of its own.

[2] The holotype specimen of Niaftasuchus zekkeli, an incomplete skull without the mandible, was collected near the Pyoza river in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, near Nyafta (Russian: Няфта).

Ivakhnenko initially interpreted it as a tapinocephalian, but subsequently proposed a monotypic order, Niaftasuchida, for it.

[6] It differs from the type species in having a straight tooth row without enlarged maxillary teeth.

Niaftasuchus is interpreted as an herbivore, with its teeth adapted primarily for tearing off soft plant parts.