Caudata

A 102-nuclear-marker toolkit is tested on sampled higher-level salamander relationships and yields an explicit Caudata topology. The marker sample does not define the fossil range, exact crown age or direct ancestors of Caudata.

The Beiyanerpeton series preserves articulated cranial and postcranial skeletons with bony gill structures close to the cheek region; these specimen-level observations do not generalize to all Caudata.

Six Beiyanerpeton specimens and an overlying 157 ± 3 Ma zircon date support a 160–154 Ma study-sample window within the Caudata route; the rock date is not a direct fossil date or order-wide FAD.

Shen et al. test higher-level salamander relationships with 102 nuclear markers, while Gao et al. describe Beiyanerpeton as a salamandroid sample; the resulting Caudata classification is sampled evidence rather than a final tree or direct-ancestor sequence.

Gao et al. report Beiyanerpeton from the Tiaojishan Formation of western Liaoning, China, while Shen et al. sample living salamander lineages for markers; these records provide study localities and taxa, not a complete geographic distribution of Caudata.

The cited salamander marker study and Beiyanerpeton fossil description address relationships, anatomy and geological context rather than diet, habitat use, locomotion, body size or ecological guild; those fields remain unassigned for Caudata here.