Palaeoproteus klatti was named by Herre (1935) [Distinguished from all other known salamanders by the combination of 37 presacral vertebrae; divergent, V -shaped hypapophyses on ventral surfaces of the vertebrae; elongated body with reduced limbs but digit count unreduced; massive crested maxilla. Differs from Palaeoproteus gallicus in having first trunk vertebra twice as long as atlas, weak or absent tuberculum interglenoideum; maxilla roughened dorsally.]. Its type specimen is GM 200, a skeleton (Almost complete specimen about 145 mm total length), and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Geiseltal, Mittelkohle, Zone III (Middlecoal, zone III), which is in a Lutetian lacustrine lignite in Germany.