Trihamus elegans was named by Hitchcock (1862). It is considered to be a form taxon. Its type specimen is AC 47/30, a footprint, and it is a trace fossil. Its type locality is below Turners Falls, tracksite, which is in a Hettangian/Sinemurian fluvial-lacustrine sandstone/shale in the Portland Formation of Massachusetts. It is the type species of Trihamus.