Paratriacanthodes retrospinis was first formally described in 1934 by the American zoologist Henry Weed Fowler with its type locality given as the China Sea in the vicinity of Taiwan at 21˚36'00N, 117˚27'00E, Albatross station D.5517 from a depth of 421 m (1,381 ft).

[2] In 1968 James C. Tyler classified the genus Paratriacanthodes in the nominate subfamily of the family Triacanthodidae, the Triacanthodinae.

[3] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies the family Triacanthodidae in the suborder Triacanthoidei in the order Tetraodontiformes.

[4] Paratriacanthodes retrospinis is the type species of the genus Paratriacanthodes, a name which prefixes the name of the type genus of the Triacanthodidae, Triacanthodes, with para, meaning "near to".

[7] Paratriacanthodes retrospinis is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific from South and East Africa to southern Japan and New Caledonia.