However, recent morphological and genomic investigation showed the species not only to be cladistically alien to the Petropedetidae, but to all other existing anuran families as well.

[2] Like many species of tadpoles inhabiting fast-flowing mountain streams, the larvae of Odontobatrachus are streamlined, with a flattened body shape, and with large sucker-like mouths adapted to attachment to rocks in defiance of powerful currents.

The maxillae (upper jaws) are densely set with sharply pointed, somewhat recurved teeth, some of them also occurring on the vomer.

There are five species:[7] Odontobatrachus occurs in the upper Guinean forests, Liberia, Sierra Leone, western parts of the Ivory Coast.

Human settlements and activities such as logging, agriculture and mining pose ecological threats to the species, causing the loss of forest habitat, though there are some conserved areas.