[3][4] Like other Weigeltisaurids, they possessed long rod-like bones that radiated from the trunk that were likely used to support membranes used for gliding, similar to extant Draco lizards.

The first remains of Weigeltisaurus jaekeli were described by Johannes Weigelt in 1930 from a specimen (SSWG 113/7) found in the Kupferschiefer near the town of Eisleben in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

Johannes Weigelt named the new species Palaeochamaeleo jaekeli both in honour of Jaekel and in reference to the similarity of the skull morphology to those of chameleons.

The same year, Friedrich von Huene noted the similarity of the specimen to Coelurosauravus elivensis from Madagascar, which had been described by Jean Piveteau in 1926, and concluded that both animals were closely related and represented climbing reptiles.

[5] In 1979, a specimen (TWCMS B5937.1) was described from Eppleton Quarry near Hetton-le-Hole, in Tyne and Wear in Northern England, in sediments that are part of the Marl Slate, a unit equivalent to the Kupferschiefer.

Preserved fossils show that the bony rods had a high degree of flexibility, similar to the ribs of living gliding lizards.

[7] In living gliding lizards, it has been found that the forelimbs grab hold of the front of the membrane during takeoff, and are used to adjust the trajectory mid-flight.

Other terrestrial vertebrates found in the Kupfershiefer and lower Zechstein include the fellow weigeltisaurid Glaurung, the early archosauromorph Protorosaurus, the pareiasaur Parasaurus, the cynodont Procynosuchus, and indeterminate captorhinids, dicynodonts and dissorophid temnospondyls.