The name means "Tethys' lizard of Nopsca", a reference to the Greek goddess of the sea Tethys (also the name of the Tethys Ocean, an ancient sea between southern Europe and northern Africa) and to the Hungarian paleontologist Baron Ferenc Nopsca, who made pioneering studies on Adriatic aquatic squamates.
The teeth are similar to those of living venomous squamates such as Heloderma and venomous snakes.