It is the type genus of the family Owenettidae, and can be distinguished from other related taxa in that the posterior portion of the supratemporal bears a lateral notch and that the pineal foramen is surrounded by a depressed parietal surface on the skull table.

The naming of a new species in 2002, O. kitchingorum, extended the temporal range of Owenetta into the Early Triassic, meaning that the genus had survived past the Permian–Triassic extinction event.

O. kitchingorum differed from O. rubidgei in that it possessed small postparietals on the posterior edge of the skull table and that the maxilla held no more than 20 teeth, some of which were caniniform.

[5] If this is the case, Owenetta is once again temporally restricted to the late Permian, and most likely died out at the end of the period as a result of the mass extinction event.

Later that year Colubrifer, named in 1982 from a specimen (UCMP 42773) found from the Early Triassic Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone and thought to represent a short limbed lizard, was re-described.