当时的1843年英国协会法规(British Association Code)允许更改不恰当的学名。1850年,理查德·欧文认为该物种体型并不是很大,故将其更名为锥喙翼手龙(Pterodactylus conirostris);种名意为“有锥形吻部的”,是根据标本NHMUK PV 39412的锥形吻部所取。[5]然而,在鲍尔班克的坚持反对下,欧文于1851年更详细描述该发现时收回了这一名称。[6]
1914年,雷金纳德·沃尔特·霍利(英语:Reginald Walter Hooley)(Reginald Walter Hooley)将该物种归入新属枪嘴翼龙(Lonchodectes,意为“长矛咬噬者”)成为巨型枪嘴翼龙(Lonchodectes giganteus)。[7]2013年,泰莎·罗德里格斯(Taissa Rodrigues)和亚历山大·克尔纳(英语:Alexander Kellner)(Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner)得出结论称枪嘴翼龙模式种扁喙枪嘴翼龙(Lonchodectes compressirostris)是个疑名,因此组合希腊语λόγχη/lonchē(长矛)及拉丁语draco(龙)创建了新属枪翼龙属(Lonchodraco)。巨型翼手龙被指定为枪翼龙的模式种,成为巨型枪翼龙(Lonchodraco giganteus)。之前归入枪嘴翼龙的其它两个物种亦被归入这一新属成为剑喙枪翼龙(Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus)及(?)小齿枪翼龙(Lonchodraco(?) microdon)。后者学名中的问号表示作者也不确定此分类是否正确。[1]
^Wellnhofer, P., 1978, Pterosauria. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie, Teil 19. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart and New York, 82 pp
^ 9.09.1Seeley, H.G., 1869, Index to the fossil remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia, from the Secondary System of Strata arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge. Deighton, Bell and Co., Cambridge, xxiii + 143 pp
^ 10.010.1Seeley, H.G., 1870, The Ornithosauria: an elementary study of the bones of pterodactyls, made from fossil remains found in the Cambridge Upper Greensand, and arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge. Deighton, Bell, and Co., Cambridge, xii + 135 pp
^Unwin, D.M. An overview of the pterosaur assemblage from the Cambridge Greensand (Cretaceous) of Eastern England. Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Geowissenschaftliche Reihe. 2001, 4: 189–221. doi:10.1002/mmng.4860040112.
^Averianov, A.O. Taxonomy of the Lonchodectidae (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea). Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS. 2020, 324 (1): 41–55. doi:10.31610/trudyzin/2020.324.1.41.
^Pêgas, Rodrigo V.; Holgado, Borja; Leal, Maria Eduarda C. On Targaryendraco wiedenrothi gen. nov. (Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontoidea, Lanceodontia) and recognition of a new cosmopolitan lineage of Cretaceous toothed pterodactyloids. Historical Biology. 2019. doi:10.1080/08912963.2019.1690482.
^Holgado, B.; Pêgas, R.V. A taxonomic and phylogenetic review of the anhanguerid pterosaur group Coloborhynchinae and the new clade Tropeognathinae. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 2020, 65. doi:10.4202/app.00751.2020.