Euhelopodids occupy a similar geographic and ecological niche to their mamenchisaurid neighbors in Jurassic and Cretaceous China: long-necked, quadrupedal herbivores browsing the region's conifer- and fern-dominated forests. The family's neck elongation is real but less extreme than Mamenchisaurus's, and its exact placement on the broader sauropod family tree has shifted more than once as new Chinese material has come to light.
Euhelopus, the genus that names the family, was among the first Asian sauropods described in detail and remains the group's best-documented member, helping establish China as a major source of sauropod diversity alongside the more famous Jurassic finds of North America.