New Salamander Species Found In Appalachian Foothills
A new species of lungless salamander was discovered recently in a small stream located in the Appalachian mountains of the US.
The new salamander is a distinctive critter that has its own genus. It breathes through its skin, and males and females have different coloration, which is quite unusual for the species.
An unusual amphibian has not been discovered in the US in half a century.
The researchers who found the salamander wrote about it in the Journal of Zoology. They have decided to call it the ‘patch-nosed’ salamander, due to the yellow patch on the animal’s face. The minute creature is barely an inch long.
The amount of the animals discovered in the area is so small that either it is very secretive, or survives in such little, isolated numbers that it is already endangered.
"This animal is really a spectacular find," said biologist Carlos Camp of Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia, who led the team, to BBC News. "It is the first genus of amphibian, indeed of any four-footed vertebrate, discovered in the US in nearly 50 years."
The Appalachian Highlands are rampant with salamander diversity, as the species thrives in the moist environments like rivers, underground, the forest floor, cliffs and up in trees.
"The salamander fauna of the US, particularly of the southern Appalachians, has been intensively studied for well over a century, so the discovery of such a distinct form was completely unsuspected," said Carlos.
Two graduate students, Bill Peterman and Joe Milanovich, found the first new salamander, the Urspelerpes brucei. They immediately took the critter to Camp for identification.
"When we realized that it was something novel, we contacted a geneticist, Trip Lamb, of East Carolina University, Greenville and a bone specialist, David Wake of the University of California at Berkeley. John Maerz, a professor at the University of Georgia, completed the research team," stated Carlos.
The team’s research discovered just how unique the salamander is.
"The genetic data revealed that this was far more unusual than any of us suspected, which is why we described it in its own genus," said Camp.
This new amphibian is noticeably different from others of its species. It has the littlest body of any salamander currently in the US. They are also the only salamanders whose males have a different color and a pattern, a trait usually distinctive to birds.
Males have long black stripes on their sides and are yellow. Females do not have stripes and are not as bright as the males.
Males have fewer vertebras than females. However, both males and females of the new species are about the same size, which is unusual for a salamander.
The behavior and habits of the salamander are a complete mystery.
So far, Camp’s team has located only eight adults, all from a specific stream. Four were found under rocks and four where found in leaf litter.
The last new amphibian in the US was found in 1961 in Alabama, and was also a lungless salamander.
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