Carnosauria was named by Huene (1920).

It was reranked as the suborder Carnosauria by Huene (1927), Huene and Matley (1933), Kuhn (1939), Krebs (1974); it was reranked as the superfamily Carnosauria by Kuhn (1946), Parsch (1963); it was synonymized subjectively with Deinodontoidea by Tatarinov (1964); it was synonymized subjectively with Megalosauroidea by Maleev (1968); it was corrected as Carnosaurida by Kuhn (1971); it was reranked as the infraorder Carnosauria by Gauthier (1986), Gauthier et al. (1989), Osmolska (1990), Holtz and Padian (1995), Holtz (1996), Currie (1997), Hutchinson and Padian (1997), Holtz (1998), Holtz (2000), Azuma and Currie (2000), Rauhut (2003), Holtz et al. (2004), Yates (2005), Malafaia et al. (2007).

It was assigned to Pachypodosauria by Huene (1926), Huene (1929), Huene (1948), Huene (1954); to Saurischia by Huene (1926), Huene (1927), Huene (1929), Huene and Matley (1933), Kuhn (1939), Krebs (1974), Bonaparte (1978), Zhao (1983); to Theropoda by Roxo (1937), Kuhn (1946), Lapparent (1947), Haughton and Brink (1954), Delair (1960), Parsch (1963), Simmons (1965), Kuhn (1966), Romer (1966), Charig (1967), Miller (1967), Reig (1970), Haubold (1971), Ellenberger (1972), Delair (1973), Haubold (1974), Anderson and Cruickshank (1978), Baird and Horner (1979), Benton (1979), McGinnis (1982), Bonaparte and Novas (1985), Buscalioni and Sanz (1987); to Theropoda by Gauthier et al. (1989); to Theropoda by Lull (1953), Romer (1956), Estes (1964), Walker (1964), Colbert (1964), del Corro (1966), Colbert and Russell (1969), Osmólska and Roniewicz (1970), Steel (1970), Swinton (1970), Kuhn (1971), Barsbold (1976), Barsbold (1977), Ostrom (1980), Santafé et al. (1982), Dong et al. (1983), Barsbold (1983), Russell (1984), Gauthier and Padian (1985), Jensen (1985), Currie (1995), Azuma and Currie (2000), Maisch and Matzke (2003); to Tetanurae by Gauthier (1986), Benton (1990), Osmolska (1990), Novas (1992), Chatterjee (1993), Russell and Dong (1994), Holtz and Padian (1995), Currie (1997), Rauhut (2003), Coria and Currie (2006); and to Avetheropoda by Holtz (1996), Hutchinson and Padian (1997), Holtz (1998), Holtz (2000), Holtz et al. (2004), Yates (2005), Malafaia et al. (2007).