Relatively small (2.5 m (8.3 ft) long) pliosaurid known from a complete skeleton (Holotype: uncatalogued specimen in Hauff Museum) found in the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) Posidonien-Schiefer, in Holzmaden, Germany. The narrow, extended snout has a long symphysis, with 7 teeth in the premaxilla; the palate shows a mixture of primitive and derived features, intermediate between Macroplata and Peloneustes. The propodials (humerus and femur) are proportionately extremely long-- longer than any of the bones in the associated limb girdles, a situation not found in any other known plesiosaurs. Hauffiosaurus has relatively small limb girdles, high aspect-ratio fins and a relatively long neck (somewhat less than 1/3 length of entire body) for a pliosauroid.

for the American paleontologist Robert Thomas Zanon (1957-1990) "who first realized this specimen represented a new genus."