Both formations have seen various age estimates, with data suggest at least some of the WPF dates to the middle Valanginian, but the upper and lower bounds of these pterosaur bearing deposits remains unclear.

[3] The genus Phobetor, was in 1982 originally described by Natasha Bakhurina as a species of Dsungaripterus (D. parvus), based on a single lower leg bone, PIN 3953.

In 2009, Lü and colleagues re-examined much of the known dsungaripterid fossil material, and found that "Phobetor" was indistinguishable from Noripterus, causing them to refer to it as a junior synonym.

[7] Dsungaripterus weii Noripterus parvus Azhdarchidae Chaoyangopteridae Keresdrakon vilsoni Thalassodrominae Tapejarinae Dsungaripterids like Noripterus are interpreted as adapted for feeding on shellfish or other hard foodstuffs, with long narrow toothless beak tips for probing and picking up suitable prey, and robust teeth farther back for cracking shells.

Because Noripterus had a more lightly built skull with weaker, more slender teeth than its larger contemporary, it is likely that the two pterosaurs occupied separate ecological niches.