Lungless salamander

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Lungless salamanders
Desmognathus auriculatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Plethodontidae
Subfamilies

Desmognathinae
Plethodontinae

Lungless salamanders (family Plethodontidae) are distinguished from other families of salamanders by the following traits:

  • No lungs. They conduct respiration through their skin and the tissues lining their mouths.
  • Frequently no aquatic larval stage. In many species eggs are laid on land and young hatch already possessing an adult body form.
  • Naso-labial groove. A slit lined with glands between the nostril and upper lip, used for chemoreception.

Measured in individual numbers, they are very successful tetrapods in areas where they occur. Some places they make up the dominant biomass of vertebrates. Due to their modest size and low metabolism, they are able to feed on prey such as collembola, which is usually too small for other terrestrial vertebrates, which gives them a whole ecological niche for themselves they can specialize in without competition from other groups.

[edit] Taxonomy

Plethodontidae includes many genera grouped under two subfamilies. Nearly four hundred species of plethodontid salamanders are known, making up the majority of known species [1]. Only two of these species are found outside the Western hemisphere.

Following a major revision in 2006 the genus Haideotriton was found to be a synonym of Eurycea while the genera Ixalotriton and Lineatriton were made synonyms of Pseudoeurycea [1].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Min, M.S., S. Y. Yang, R. M. Bonett, D. R. Vieites, R. A. Brandon & D. B. Wake. (2005). Discovery of the first Asian plethodontid salamander. Nature (435), 87-90 (5 May 2005)

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