Vetulicola's taxonomic position is controversial. V. cuneata was originally assigned to the phylum Arthropoda on the assumption that it was a bivalved arthropod like Canadaspis and Waptia, but the lack of legs, the presence of gill slits, and the four plates in the "carapace" were unlike any known arthropod. In 2001, Degan Shu and his team reinterpreted the animals as deuterostomes placing Vetulicola in the new family Vetulicolidae, order Vetulicolida, and created a new phylum Vetulicolia.
