Nesbitt (2011) defines Proterochampsia as a stem-based taxon that includes Proterochampsa barrionuevoi and all forms more closely related to it than Euparkeria capensis, Erythrosuchus africanus, Passer domesticus (the House Sparrow), or Crocodylus niloticus (the Nile crocodile).

Proterochampsians lack a fifth digit on the foot; the fifth metatarsal is reduced to a small pointed bone.

[1] Ezcurra (2016), who recovered a clade formed by Proterochampsidae and Doswelliidae, defined Proterochampsia by up-facing nostrils, maxilla-to-prefrontal contact, the tooth bearing part of the upper jaw being curved downwards, neck and front back vertebrae lacking a postzygodiapophyseal lamina, tibia with straight cnemial crest, fifth metatarsal that is not hook-shaped in its inner end, well developed foot phalanges on the fifth digit but with a poorly developed first phalanx, among other traits.

The monophyly of Proterochampsia, which was restricted to proterochampsids, was supported by 12 unambiguous synapomorphies in their analysis, including the presence of dermal sculpturing on skull that consists of prominent ridges or tubercles on frontals, parietals and nasals; a contact between the maxilla and the prefrontal, separating lacrimal and nasal; a strongly convex dorsal margin of surangular and palatal teeth that are inserted into alveoli.

Proterochampsia was found to be the sister taxon of Archosauria, whose living representatives consist of birds and crocodilians.

[7] Proterosuchidae Sarmatosuchus Cuyosuchus Erythrosuchidae Asperoris Dorosuchus Euparkeria Halazhaisuchus Avemetatarsalia Pseudosuchia Litorosuchus Vancleavea Polymorphodon Jaxtasuchus Doswellia Rugarhynchos ?