Study of a growth series of Devonian brachiopods belonging to the genus Stringocephalus indicates that the genus may have been derived from the subgenus Geranocephalus (Stringominus) of the family Stringocephalidae though it is only hypothetical. Stratigraphically the family Stringocephalidae arose from one or more ancestors in the Eifelian. The genus Stringocephalus has a worldwide distribution, from western Australia and Asia to north Africa, western Europe, and southern England, as well as in Indiana.