Aetosaurinae is one of the two subfamilies of aetosaurs, the other being Desmatosuchinae. It is a stem-based taxon defined as all aetosaurs more closely related to Aetosaurus than to the last common ancestor of Aetosaurus and Desmatosuchus. The only synapomorphy that diagnoses the clade Aetosaurinae is the medial offset of the dorsal eminences of the paramedian osteoderms. A phylogenetic study in 2012 found Aetosaurinae to be paraphyletic, with Aetosaurus being the basal-most stagonolepidid and aetosaurines like Calyptosuchus, Neoaetosauroides, and the newly described Aetobarbakinoides being successively more derived taxa leading up to a clade containing Desmatosuchinae and Typothoracisinae. Under this phylogeny, most traditional aetosaurines are more closely related to Desmatosuchus than they are to Aetosaurus, and the clade Aetosaurinae can only include Aetosaurus.

Aetosaurinae is one of the two subfamilies of aetosaurs, the other being Desmatosuchinae. It is a stem-based taxon defined as all aetosaurs more closely related to Aetosaurus than to the last common ancestor of Aetosaurus and Desmatosuchus. The only synapomorphy that diagnoses the clade Aetosaurinae is the medial offset of the dorsal eminences of the paramedian osteoderms. A phylogenetic study in 2012 found Aetosaurinae to be paraphyletic, with Aetosaurus being the basal-most stagonolepidid and aetosaurines like Calyptosuchus, Neoaetosauroides, and the newly described Aetobarbakinoides being successively more derived taxa leading up to a clade containing Desmatosuchinae and Typothoracisinae. Under this phylogeny, most traditional aetosaurines are more closely related to Desmatosuchus than they are to Aetosaurus, and the clade Aetosaurinae can only include Aetosaurus.