the type species, "a. longidentatum", was initially described by john william dawson on the basis of rm 2.1129, a left mandible. this fossil hailed from the joggins fossil cliffs, a site in nova scotia famous for fossil deposits dated to the bashkirian, the first stage of the pennsylvanian subperiod of the carboniferous period. "a. longidentatum" was originally named "hylerpeton longidentatum", as dawson considered it a new species of the microsaur "hylerpeton," distinct from "hylerpeton dawsoni" (the type species of "hylerpeton"). steen (1934) and carroll (1966) questioned the microsaurian placement of "h. longidentatum", but withheld judgment on its taxonomic status, although carroll (1966) noted similarities to non-tetrapod sarcopterygians. pardo and mann (2018) demonstrated that "h. longidentatum" belongs to the limbless tetrapod clade aistopoda and renamed it "andersonerpeton" in honor of jason s. anderson, a contributor to enhanced understanding of aïstopod morphology and phylogeny.