The torrent salamanders have highly reduced lungs and are endemic to the United States in the Pacific Northwest (including northwestern California).

They have complete metamorphosis, but a few neotenic traits have been found, like the presence of conical teeth and reduced or absent nasal bones.

The lungs are minute; in R. olympicus they are 5 to 7 mm in length, but highly vascular and filled with air.

On rare occasions adults can be found under objects a few meters from water after heavy rain.

[8] The eggs have a pale yellow-white ova, and are deposited separately and haphazardly in slow-flowing water.