Described in 1990 by Jacob Larsen and David Patterson from sediment samples off the coast of Fiji, it is distinguished from other species by very fine and compact pellicle stripes that follow an S-helix shape, and a collar with a regular or symmetrical outline.

Urceolus cornutus is a species of flagellate, a unicellular eukaryote or protist that moves with one emergent flagellum for movement, present in the anterior region of the cell.

The pellicle stripes, characteristic of euglenids, are delicate and closely spaced, in the shape of an S-helix and reaching into the collar.

The feeding apparatus or ingestion organelle, located at the base of the canal, is well-developed and is composed of two microtubular rods.

[7] The species Urceolus cornutus was described by protistologists Jacob Larsen and David Patterson in a 1990 study of flagellates from tropical marine sediments, published in the Journal of Natural History.