Shenzhoupterus is based on holotypeHGM 41HIII-305A (Henan Geological Museum at Zhengzhou), the articulated skull and skeleton of a single individual, with a wingspan of 1.4 meters (4.6 feet). Shenzhoupterus lacked teeth, and had a crest on its skull that arched over the eyes and terminated in a small point toward the back of the head. The nasoantorbital fenestra (an opening incorporating the holes for the nostrils and the antorbital fenestrae) was large and extended over the eyes and braincase.
Below are two cladograms showing the phylogenetic placement of Shenzhoupterus within the group Azhdarchoidea. The one on the left is a topology by Felipe Pinheiro and colleagues in 2011. In their phylogenetic analysis, they recovered Shenzhoupterus within the family Tapejaridae, more specifically within a subfamily called Chaoyangopterinae, sister taxon to both Jidapterus and Chaoyangopterus.[2] The cladogram on the right is a different topology, recovered by Alexander Kellner and colleagues in 2019. Unlike the analysis by Pinheiro and colleagues, the analysis by Kellner and colleagues did not recover Shenzhoupterus within the Tapejaridae, but instead recovered it within the family Chaoyangopteridae, still the sister taxon to both Jidapterus and Chaoyangopterus, though. Chaoyangopteridae was in turn found as the sister taxon of the family Azhdarchidae, both within the clade Azhdarchoidea.[3]
In 2023, Ji et al. described a chaoyangopterid specimen as a new species of Shenzhoupterus, S. sanyainus.[4] However, a publication later that year transferred that species to the new genus Meilifeilong, using the new combination M. sanyainus.[5]
^Lü J.; D.M. Unwin; Xu L.; Zhang X. (2008). "A new azhdarchoid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China and its implications for pterosaur phylogeny and evolution". Naturwissenschaften. 95 (9): 891–7. doi:10.1007/s00114-008-0397-5. PMID18509616.