Rana kukunoris, a unique amphibian inhabited on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, has adapted to the natural environment of high altitude, hypoxia and strong ultraviolet radiation in the long term. The skin structure produces a series of specific changes to make living organisms be survival to the environment. The morphological and histological observation on the skin of R. kukunoris was conducted by optical and scanning electron microscopy. Measurements were performed using image software Image-Pro Plus 6.0. All statistical tests were performed using software SPSS 19.0. All values given were shown as Mean ± SE. P < 0.05 was considered significant in t test. The skin of R. kukunoris consisted of epidermis and dermis (Fig. 1, 2). The epidermis was keratinized stratified squamous epithelium (Fig. 2e, f), and its thicknesses were basically consistent at various positions. The thicknesses of dermis were different at different positions of the body (Table 2). The dermis of the back head was the thickest (197.86 ± 29.73 μm) and that of the lateral side of body was the thinnest (55.33 ± 5.22 μm). There were three types of cutaneous glands, mucous glands, granular glands and eosinophil glands in the stratum spongiosum (Fig. 1b). The mucous glands of dorsal was the most, and the granular glands were mostly distributed in the dorsal skin in a cluste. The epidermis contained a few capillaries and rich chromatophores, capillaries were evenly distributed in the dorsal-ventral skin, chromatophores were distributed in the dorsal skin, and a few in ventral skin, which is probably the strategy of Rana kukunoris adaption to Qinghai-Tibet plateau.