M. lottorum was first described and named by Axel Hungerbühler, Bill Mueller, Sankar Chatterjee and Douglas P. Cunningham in 2013.
The specific name honors John Lott and Patricia Lott Kirkpatrick, for their support during the work at the TTU VPL 3870.
It is known from two complete skulls, the holotype TTU-P10076 and the paratype TTU-P10077 housed at Texas Tech University.
The skulls were collected at Patricia Site (TTU Vertebrate Paleontology Locality 3870), 13 km South of Post, Garza County of west Texas, from the upper unit of the Norian Cooper Canyon Formation, Dockum Group.
Other vertebrates known from this site include TTU-P10074, a partial skull referred to Machaeroprosopus sp.,
a phytosaur postcranial skeleton, fish, a temnospondyl amphibian, Typothorax, Postosuchus, Shuvosaurus and a theropod dinosaur.

A phylogenetic analysis of pseudopalatine phytosaurs performed by Hungerbühler et al. (
2013) found the species to be a derived Machaeroprosopus species, most closely related to the type species of Redondasaurus, "R." gregorii.
This clade in addition to Machaeroprosopus sp. (
TTU-P10074) was recovered as the sister taxon of the clade formed by M. pristinus and M. buceros.
M. jablonskiae, M. mccauleyi and "Redondasaurus" bermani were found to be basal species of Machaeroprosopus.
M. lottorum was first described and named by Axel Hungerbühler, Bill Mueller, Sankar Chatterjee and Douglas P. Cunningham in 2013. The specific name honors John Lott and Patricia Lott Kirkpatrick, for their support during the work at the TTU VPL 3870. It is known from two complete skulls, the holotype TTU-P10076 and the paratype TTU-P10077 housed at Texas Tech University. The skulls were collected at Patricia Site (TTU Vertebrate Paleontology Locality 3870), 13 km South of Post, Garza County of west Texas, from the upper unit of the Norian Cooper Canyon Formation, Dockum Group. Other vertebrates known from this site include TTU-P10074, a partial skull referred to Machaeroprosopus sp., a phytosaur postcranial skeleton, fish, a temnospondyl amphibian, Typothorax, Postosuchus, Shuvosaurus and a theropod dinosaur.
A phylogenetic analysis of pseudopalatine phytosaurs performed by Hungerbühler et al. (2013) found the species to be a derived Machaeroprosopus species, most closely related to the type species of Redondasaurus, "R." gregorii. This clade in addition to Machaeroprosopus sp. (TTU-P10074) was recovered as the sister taxon of the clade formed by M. pristinus and M. buceros. M. jablonskiae, M. mccauleyi and "Redondasaurus" bermani were found to be basal species of Machaeroprosopus.
Machaeroprosopus