Smith's false brook salamander is a large species that can grow to 14.6 centimetres (5.7 in), half of which is tail.

There are twelve to fifteen costal grooves on either side of the body and the tail is prehensile and has a constriction at its base.

[2][3] Pseudoeurycea smithi occurs in several mountain ranges in north west Oaxaca State, Mexico, at an altitude of between 2,500 and 3,000 metres (8,200 and 9,800 ft) above sea level.

Little is known of the breeding habits of this species but the female is believed to brood the eggs and they hatch directly into juvenile salamanders with no intervening larval stage.

Although logging, changing agricultural practices and human activities have taken place in the mountains where it lives, good quality habitat still exists and these factors do not fully explain the decline in population size, the cause of which remains a mystery.