Climbing salamanders is the common name for

plethodontid Plethodontidae, or lungless salamanders, are a family of salamanders. Most species are native to the Western Hemisphere, from British Columbia to Brazil, although a few species are found in Sardinia, Europe south of the Alps, and South Korea. In ...

(lungless)

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

s of the genus ''Aneides''. It contains 10 species native to

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 ...

, distributed between the

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

(7 species),

Sacramento Mountains The Sacramento Mountains are a mountain range in the south-central part of the U.S. state of New Mexico, lying just east of Alamogordo in Otero County (small portions of the range lie in Lincoln County and Chaves County). From north to south, ...

(1 species), and

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

(2 species). As their common name suggests, most of these species have

prehensile tail A prehensile tail is the tail of an animal that has adapted to grasp or hold objects. Fully prehensile tails can be used to hold and manipulate objects, and in particular to aid arboreal creatures in finding and eating food in the trees. If the ta ...

s and are quite mobile in trees.

Taxonomy

The

green salamander The green salamander (''Aneides aeneus'') is a species of lungless salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It and the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander (''A. caryaensis'') are the only currently-described members of the genus ''Aneides'' that i ...

(''A. aeneus'') and the

Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander The Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander (''Aneides caryaensis'') is a species of lungless salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the Hickory Nut Gorge in the state of North Carolina in the United States. Taxonomy It is a memb ...

(''A. caryaensis'') are now considered to belong to their own

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

Castaneides Climbing salamanders is the common name for plethodontid (lungless) salamanders of the genus ''Aneides''. It contains 10 species native to North America, distributed between the Pacific Coast (7 species), Sacramento Mountains (1 species), and A ...

'', which diverged from the '' Aneides hardii'' lineage between 27.2 and 32.3 million years ago, during the

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 ...

. ''Castaneides'' contains significant cryptic diversity and may contain more as-of-yet

undescribed species In taxonomy, an undescribed taxon is a taxon (for example, a species) that has been discovered, but not yet formally described and named. The various Nomenclature Codes specify the requirements for a new taxon to be validly described and named. U ...

. All other western ''Aneides'' including ''A. hardii'' are considered ''Aneides

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

'', and belong to the subgenus of the same name.

Distribution

All ten known species in this genus inhabit mountain ecosystems in

, and all but three are found primarily in the mountains of the

west coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. Of the three non-western species, the Sacramento Mountain salamander (''A. hardii'') is endemic to a mountainous region in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, while the two currently-described ''Castaneides'' species are endemic to the

of eastern United States.

Species

Ten species in two subgenera are currently assigned to this genus: ''

Nota bene (, or ; plural form ) is a Latin phrase meaning "note well". It is often abbreviated as NB, n.b., or with the ligature and first appeared in English writing . In Modern English, it is used, particularly in legal papers, to draw the atten ...

'': A

binomial authority In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Aneides''.

References

External links

Caudata Culture Species Database - Plethodontidae
Amphibian genera Amphibians of North America Extant Cenozoic first appearances Taxa named by Spencer Fullerton Baird {{Plethodontidae-stub

Taxonomy

Distribution

Species

References

Further reading

External links