Valentine's southern dusky salamander
Valentine's southern dusky salamander | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Urodela |
Family: | Plethodontidae |
Subfamily: | Plethodontinae |
Genus: | Desmognathus |
Species: | D. valentinei
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Binomial name | |
Desmognathus valentinei Means, Lamb & Bernardo, 2017
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Valentine's southern dusky salamander (Desmognathus valentinei) is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the southeastern United States.[1][2]
Taxonomy[]
It was previously thought to be a population of Holbrook's southern dusky salamander (D. holbrooki), with both species being grouped together as the southern dusky salamander. However, a 2008 study found D. holbrooki as previously defined to be polyphyletic and containing multiple undescribed species.[3] One of these undescribed species was formally described in 2017 as D. valentinei.[4] It is named in honor of , a biologist and former faculty emeritus at Ohio State University, who had first suggested the distinctiveness of this taxon in the early 1960s.[5]
Distribution[]
It is found in the Gulf Coast region, where it ranges from the Mobile Bay region of Alabama west through the southern half of Mississippi to eastern Louisiana.[3]
Description[]
Despite its close resemblance to D. holbrooki, it has some morphological differences. It has a larger body structure than D. holbrooki and has nondescript dorsal markings instead of the crisply-defined blotches on other Desmognathus species. They also differ in aspects of the skull, and the tails of D. valentinei have a bladelike shape instead of narrowing to a tip.[5]
References[]
- ^ "Desmognathus valentinei Means, Lamb, and Bernardo, 2017 | Amphibian Species of the World". amphibiansoftheworld.amnh.org. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
- ^ "AmphibiaWeb - Desmognathus valentinei". amphibiaweb.org. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
- ^ a b Beamer, David A.; Lamb, Trip (2008-04-01). "Dusky salamanders (Desmognathus, Plethodontidae) from the Coastal Plain: Multiple independent lineages and their bearing on the molecular phylogeny of the genus". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 47 (1): 143–153. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.01.015. ISSN 1055-7903.
- ^ Means, D. Bruce; Lamb, Jennifer Y.; Bernardo, Joseph (2017-05-10). "A new species of dusky salamander (Amphibia: Plethodontidae: Desmognathus) from the Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain of the United States and a redescription of D. auriculatus". Zootaxa. 4263 (3): 467–506–467–506. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4263.3.3. ISSN 1175-5334.
- ^ a b "Team that includes A&M biologist discovers new species of salamander". Research @ Texas A&M | Inform, Inspire, Amaze. 2017-08-31. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
- Desmognathus
- Amphibians of the United States
- Endemic fauna of the United States
- Fauna of the Southeastern United States
- Amphibians described in 2017