[5] However, in a 2013 phylogenetic analysis, the two Asian species of Planocrania were found to be most closely related to the North American and European Boverisuchus, and the family Planocraniidae was reinstated to contain these genera and replace Pristichampsidae.

[6] Phylogenetic analyses based purely on morphological data have generally placed planocraniids in a basal position within the crocodilian crown group.

Some of these analyses have found that planocraniids lie just outside Brevirostres, a group that includes alligators, caimans, and crocodiles but not gharials.

[6][7][8] However, molecular studies using DNA sequencing have found the group Brevirostres to be invalid upon finding that crocodiles and gavialids are more closely related than alligators.

[9][10][11][2][12] A 2018 tip dating study by Lee & Yates using both molecular, morphological and stratigraphic data instead recovered the planocraniids outside crown group Crocodylia.