The family Platycopiidae was erected by Georg Ossian Sars when he described the new species P. perplexa, and included it in the order Calanoida.

[2] In 1948, Karl Georg Herman Lang erected a new suborder, Progymnoplea, for the family, and in 1985, Audun Fosshagen & Thomas Iliffe created the order Platycopioida to contain the Platycopiidae, initially placed alongside Calanoida in the superorder Gymnoplea.

[2] Members of the Platycopiidae have a primitive form, thought to be similar to the most recent common ancestor of all copepods.

Few synapormorphies have been found to unite the family, but they include the presence of a second dorsal seta (hair) on particular segments of the legs.

[3] Antrisocopia prehensilis Fosshagen, 1985 is a critically endangered species from a limestone anchialine cave in Bermuda, known from only five mature specimens.