''Andrias'' is a genus of
giant salamanders. It includes the largest
salamanders in the world, with ''A. japonicus'' reaching a length of , and ''A. sligoi'' reaching . While extant species are only known from
East Asia, several extinct species in the genus are known from late
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
and
Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
aged fossils collected in
Europe and
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, indicating that the genus formerly had a much wider range.
Taxonomy
The generic name derives from
Ancient Greek ἀνδριάς, "statue". The former name was ''Megalobatrachus'', from Ancient Greek meaning "giant frog".
Species
Extant
Based on genetic evidence, there may be more extant species in the genus. A study in 2018 found that ''A. davidianus'' ''
sensu lato'' was a
species complex that consisted of at least 5 different species. ''A. sligoi'', which was formerly synonymized with ''A. davidianus'', was revived in 2019 for one of these populations, and in 2022, another of these was described as ''A. jiangxiensis''.
Extinct
References
AmphibiaWeb - Andrias japonicus Accessed 2008-04-08.
AmphibiaWeb - Andrias davidianus Accessed 2008-04-08.
Amphibian Species of the World 5.1.Accessed 2008-04-10.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q922164
Cryptobranchidae
Amphibian genera
Taxa named by Johann Jakob von Tschudi
Extant Miocene first appearances