Macropelobates osborni was named by Noble (1924). Its type specimen is Amer. Mus. No. 6252, a partial skeleton (incomplete skeleton, crushed anteriorly, but well preserved), and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Tsagan Nor Basin, which is in an Oligocene terrestrial claystone in the Hsanda Gol Formation of Mongolia. It is the type species of Macropelobates.