[1][2] The holotype and only specimen, a fragmentary skull, was collected by K. Aiyengar from the Chinji Formation, some 2.75 miles (4.43 km) east of Paridarwaza in Jhelum, India.

In 1932, paleontologist Guy Ellcock Pilgrim described the fossils as the new genus and species Vishnufelis laticeps.

[5] Pilgrim in his original description considered Vishnufelis laticeps a very primitive member of the subfamily Felinae.

[6] The Lower Siwaliks of Ramnagar were likely a half-closed, half-open woodlands ecosystem with grassy areas, riddled with waterways and floodplain channels and ponds.

[7] A 2020 analysis of carnivoran species considered it part of a Middle Miocene paleobiogeographic province in southern Asia.