μCT source dataset of the holotype (CIB 14380) of Batrachuperus londongensis from Sichuan Province, China

However, no consensus has been reached in regard to the origin, evolutionary history of certain characters and phylogenetic relationships of this clade, due to the factors as below: poor fossil records, insufficiency of morphological investigations of living taxa, inconsistency of cladistic analyses using molecular data, and lacking of morphology-based cladistic analyses.

Individuals of Batrachuperus londongensis inhabit in the Longdong River area in Mount Emei, Sichuan Province, China, featuring as the single living hynobiid species that is facultatively neotenic, of which certain adults fail to metamorphose but retain larval features. No thorough osteological investigations were conducted, despite that the species has been known to scientific community for 40 years. In this study, the holotype (CIB 14380) of B. londongensis was μCT scanned section by section, via the Quantum GX microCT Imaging System at Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.