''Pseudoeurycea aquatica'', which has been given the common name of aquatic salamander is a species of

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 ...

in the family Plethodontidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Mexico and only known from its type locality in the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca near

Totontepec Villa de Morelos Totontepec Villa de Morelos is a small village and municipality, in the Sierra Mixe district of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is located some 1840 metres above sea level and some 326 km from the state capital, Oaxaca de Juárez. In spite o ...

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

. The natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

of ''Pseudoeurycea aquatica'' is

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

at about

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. It lives aquatically in streams, the only plethodontid salamander in Mesoamerica to do so. It is only known from three specimens collected in 1978, and the original habitat has been completely destroyed. Subsequent searches have been unsuccessful, and the species is likely to be

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

References

aquatica Amphibians described in 2001 Taxa named by David B. Wake Taxa named by Jonathan A. Campbell Endemic amphibians of Mexico Fauna of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Plethodontidae-stub