2010年,史蒂芬·布魯薩特(英语:Stephen L. Brusatte)等人在單脊龍頭骨的研究中比較了單脊龍與五彩冠龍的頭骨形態,得出五彩冠龍屬於基礎暴龍超科的結論;而五彩冠龍與單脊龍的頭冠雖然相似,兩者可能不是同源的構造[4]。其後的研究也支持這項推論,並進一步將五彩冠龍歸類為暴龍超科的原角鼻龍科。
^Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2008) Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All AgesSupplementary Information (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆)
^Brusatte, S. L.; Benson, R. B. J.; Currie, P. J.; Zhao, X. The skull of Monolophosaurus jiangi (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and its implications for early theropod phylogeny and evolution. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 2010, 158 (3): 573-607. ISSN 0024-4082. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00563.x.
^Brusatte, S. L.; Carr, T. D. The phylogeny and evolutionary history of tyrannosauroid dinosaurs. Scientific Reports. 2016, 6: 20252. ISSN 2045-2322. doi:10.1038/srep20252.
Xu X., Clark, J.M., Forster, C. A., Norell, M.A., Erickson, G.M., Eberth, D.A., Jia, C., and Zhao, Q. A basal tyrannosauroid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China. Nature. 2006, 439: 715–718.