A new genus and species of lungless salamander (family Plethodontidae) from the Appalachian highlands of the south‐eastern United States

Abstract

We describe a striking new species of the lungless salamander family Plethodontidae from the Appalachian foothills of northern Georgia, USA. This miniature species, c. 25-26 mm (adult standard length), is so distinctive genetically and morphologically that we erect a new genus, the first new genus of amphibian described from the US in nearly 50 years. It is unique among plethodontids from eastern North America in displaying sexual colour dimorphism. Although certain miniaturized plethodontids exhibit a reduced number (four) of digits on the pes, this species possesses a full complement of five toes. A plethodontid phylogeny derived from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences places it in the tribe Spelerpini as the sister taxon to Eurycea. Genetic divergence between the new species and Eurycea for the nuclear gene Rag-1 (4.7%) is among the higher levels observed between long-established spelerpine genera (2.6-5.3%). This new form appears to be rare and is of immediate conservation concern.

Masters of miniaturization: Convergent evolution among interstitial eukaryotes

“…Miniaturization is best documented in vertebrates [4] such as fish [6,7], frogs [8][9][10], and salamanders [11,12] (but also see examples in terrestrial arthropods [13,14]), where it illustrates evolutionary themes such as the origin of morphological novelty [15], heterochrony [7], and convergence [6]. Here, we suggest that meiofauna might provide some of the deepest insights into these fundamental evolutionary processes, and, because these miniature species are ubiquitous throughout the metazoan tree of life, we suggest that meiofauna are uniquely poised to shed light on the origins and diversification of animals.…”

Influência do ambiente sobre o tamanho do ovo e da desova em salamandras que se reproduzem em corpos d'água lênticos e lóticos

“…Hence, for most of the taxa for which there are data on parental care, the comparisons were not phylogenetically independent. Data on presence or absence of parental care are lacking for many species, especially the several new taxa that have been described recently (Camp et al 2009). Detailed natural-history data are needed for many species, especially for the Asian and New World tropical salamanders, to test the parental care hypothesis properly.…”

Larval masquerade: a new species of paedomorphic salamander (Caudata: Plethodontidae: Eurycea) from the Ouachita Mountains of North America

“…This species is assigned to the genus Eurycea based on strong molecular phylogenetic evidence, and overall similarity to other larval Eurycea. The genus Eurycea is highly heteromorphic, with no single character to diagnosis it from other spelerpine genera (Wake 1966;Camp et al 2009;Adams et al 2009). However, members are consistently monophyletic in molecular phylogenetic studies (Camp et al 2009;Bonett et al 2014).…”

“…Highton 1989;Chippindale et al 2000;Garcia-Paris et al 2000;Jockusch et al 2002). Plethodontids are known to exhibit a wide diversity of life histories and developmental modes (Wake 1966;Chippindale et al 2004;Mueller et al 2004;Bonett et al 2014), but ecologically and developmentally distinct new species are extremely rare, especially within North America, which has been extensively surveyed (Dunn 1926;Highton 1989;Camp et al 2009). …”