[1] With Pilgrim's clarification of Paramachaerodus in 1931, and utter rejection of both Pontosmilus and Proamphimachairodus-he included Machairodus orientalis, Felis ogygia, and Machairodus maximiliani as species of Paramachaerodus-Pontosmilus was rendered an invalid genus, for it possessed no valid type species, and both Pontosmilus and Proamphimachairodus were designated junior synonyms of Paramachaerodus.

[1] A major review of the genus in 2010 designated P. matthewi, P. schlosseri, P. hungaricus as junior synonyms of P. orientalis, with P. maximiliani the only other valid species in Paramachaerodus, and assigning P. agygia back to Promegantereon.

[1] A third species, Paramachaerodus transasiaticus, was described in 2017 based on analysis of new fossil material from the late Miocene localities of Hezheng, Gansu Province, China, and Hadjidimovo, Bulgaria.

While Paramachaerodus is generally accepted as a close relative and probable forerunner of Megantereon and therefore an ancestor of Smilodon, the role Promegantereon played in this is still controversial.

While researchers have generally favoured the classification of Promegantereon as a distinct genus starting in the early 2000's, it was still thought to be a close relative and potential ancestor of Paramachaerodus.

Thus, Paramachaerodus' position within the Smilodontini was generally understood as intermediate, with Promegantereon as the first and Smilodon as the ultimate representative of that machairodontine tribe.

This would make Paramachaerodus, the Smilodontini and the Metailurini as traditionally definded polyphyletic, and calls for more work regarding machairodontine systematics, suggesting that a major revision of the subfamily may be needed.