It is only known from the vicinity of its type locality, in Puxiong (普雄镇), in Yuexi County, Sichuan Province.

The area belongs to the Hengduan Mountains that form the southeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

[3] The Puxiong salamander was first described in 2000 as Protohynobius puxiongensis, based on a single specimen collected in 1965.

Because of a characteristic interpreted as primitive (internasal bone), a new monotypic genus, Protohynobius, in its own subfamily, Protohynobiinae, was established.

[4] The holotype was collected from an abandoned potato cellar, but later field work revealed a more typical habitat for a hynobiid, i.e., high-mountain terrestrial (altitude 2,900 m), with breeding in cold-water streams.