a phylogenetic analysis conducted by li "et al." (2012) in the original description of "diandongosuchus" showed that it was the most basal member of a clade called poposauroidea, which includes mostly terrestrial pseudosuchians such as the bipedal "poposaurus" and the sail-backed "arizonasaurus". it was found to be closely related to "qianosuchus", an aquatic pseudosuchian that was the second most basal member of poposauroidea. the data matrix of li "et al.", a list of characteristics that was used in the analysis, was based on that of nesbitt (2011), one of the most extensive on archosaurs. because of this, many of the relationships found by li "et al." are the same as those found by nesbitt. below is a cladogram from the analysis: