[2] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World places Parabembras in the family Bembridae with the other deepwater flatheads[3] but other authorities classify it within its own monotypic family, the Parabembradidae.

[4] Parabembradidae was first proposed as a family in 1925, with the name then being Parabembridae, by the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and Carl Leavitt Hubbs.

[7] Parabembras differs from the other Bembrid genera by having 3 spines in the anal fin whereas the others have none.

[8] These flatheads vary in size from P. curta, which has a maximum published standard length of 15.1 cm (5.9 in), to P. robinsoni, which has a maximum published total length of 24 cm (9.4 in).

[4] They are demersal to bathydemersal fishes living down to depths of 600 m (2,000 ft).