Salamandridae

Salamandridae is a family of salamanders consisting of true salamanders and newts. Salamandrids are distinguished from other salamanders by the lack of rib or costal grooves along the sides of their bodies and by their rough skin. Their skin is very granular because of the number of poison glands. They also lack nasolabial grooves. Most species of Salamandridae have moveable eyelids but lack lacrimal glands.

Nearly all salamandrids produce a potent toxin in their skin, with some species being deadly to many other animal species. With a few exceptions, salamandrids have patterns of bright and contrasting colours, most of these are to warn potential predators of their toxicity. They have four well-developed limbs, with four toes on the fore limbs, and (in most cases) five toes on the hind limbs. They vary from in length.

Many species within this family reproduce by method of internal fertilization. Additionally, there are many species-specific courtship rituals that males perform to attract mates. These courtship rituals often employ pheromones to induce mating behavior in females. Pheromones have been discovered to be the driving force behind female mating responses in Alpine newts. These pheromones can induce behavior even when male visual epidemic characters and courtship dances are absent. All species within the genus ''Lyciasalamandra'' are viviparous, meaning they give birth to live young, without a tadpole stage. There are some species within the genus ''Salamandra'' are known to be viviparous too''.'' Some newts are neotenic, being able to reproduce before they are fully metamorphosed. The females of many species can store sperm for up to 6 months at a time.

Toxicity

The genus ''Taricha'' use the poison tetrodotoxin (TTX) that binds and blocks voltage-gated sodium channels (Na_v) in nerves and muscles. This blockage causes the cessation of action potentials, leading to paralysis and death. Tetrodotoxin is the most toxic non-protein substance known. The Rough-Skinned Newt (''Taricha granulosa)'' uses tetrodotoxin and is considered the most poisonous species of Newt. There are species and sub-species of ''Taricha'' that live in concurrent regions with a garter snake (''Thamnophis)'' that has developed a resistance to the TTX poisoning. Species that inhabit regions with resistant ''Thamnophis'' snakes have evolved to increase their concentrations of TTX in an evolutionary arms race of predator versus prey.

Conservation Status (IUCN Redlist)

Phylogeny

Cladograms based on the work of Pyron and Wiens (2011) and modified using Mikko Haaramo

Taxonomy

The genus ''Salamandrina'' is the only member of the subfamily Salamandrininae, and the genera ''Chioglossa'', ''Lyciasalamandra'', ''Mertensiella'', and ''Salamandra'' are grouped in the subfamily Salamandrinae, with sixteen other genera comprising the subfamily Pleurodelinae. Those with a more thoroughly aquatic lifestyle are referred to as "newts", but this is not a formal taxonomic description.

Family SALAMANDRIDAE

*Subfamily Pleurodelinae
**Genus '' Calotriton'' - two species
***''Calotriton arnoldi'' Carranza & Amat, 2005
***''Calotriton asper'' (Dugès, 1852)
**Genus '' Cynops'' (fire belly newts) - ten species
***''Cynops chenggongensis'' Kou and Xing, 1983
***''Cynops cyanurus'' Liu, Hu, and Yang, 1962
***''Cynops ensicauda'' (Hallowell, 1861)
***''Cynops fudingensis'' Wu, Wang, Jiang, and Hanken, 2010
***''Cynops glaucus'' Yuan, Jiang, Ding, Zhang, and Che, 2013
***''Cynops orientalis'' (David, 1873)
***''Cynops orphicus'' Risch, 1983
***'' Cynops pyrrhogaster'' (Boie, 1826)
***'' Cynops wolterstorffi'' (Boulenger, 1905)
***''Cynops yunnanensis'' Yang, 1983
**Genus '' Echinotriton'' - three species
***''Echinotriton andersoni'' (Boulenger, 1892)
***''Echinotriton chinhaiensis'' (Chang, 1932)
***''Echinotriton maxiquadratus'' Hou, Wu, Yang, Zheng, Yuan, and Li, 2014
**Genus '' Euproctus'' - two species
***''Euproctus montanus'' (Savi, 1838)
***''Euproctus platycephalus'' (Gravenhorst, 1829)
**Genus ''Ichthyosaura'' - one species
***''Ichthyosaura alpestris'' (Laurenti, 1768)
**Genus '' Laotriton'' - one species
***''Laotriton laoensis'' (Stuart & Papenfuss, 2002)
**Genus '' Lissotriton'' - ten species
***'' Lissotriton boscai'' (Lataste, 1879)
***'' Lissotriton graecus'' (Wolterstorff, 1906)
***'' Lissotriton helveticus'' (Razoumovsky, 1789)
***'' Lissotriton italicus'' (Peracca, 1898)
***'' Lissotriton kosswigi'' (Freytag, 1955)
***'' Lissotriton lantzi'' (Wolterstorff, 1914)
***'' Lissotriton maltzani'' (Boettger, 1879)
***'' Lissotriton montandoni'' (Boulenger, 1880)
***'' Lissotriton schmidtleri'' (Raxworthy, 1988)
***'' Lissotriton vulgaris'' (Linnaeus, 1758)
**Genus ''Neurergus'' - five species
***''Neurergus barani'' Öz, 1994
***''Neurergus crocatus'' Cope, 1862
***''Neurergus derjugini'' (Nesterov, 1916)
***''Neurergus kaiseri'' Schmidt, 1952
***''Neurergus strauchii'' (Steindachner, 1887)
**Genus '' Notophthalmus'' - three species
***''Notophthalmus meridionalis'' (Cope, 1880)
***'' Notophthalmus perstriatus'' (Bishop, 1941)
***'' Notophthalmus viridescens'' (Rafinesque, 1820)
**Genus '' Ommatotriton'' - three species
***'' Ommatotriton nesterovi'' (Litvinchuk, Zuiderwijk, Borkin, and Rosanov, 2005)
***'' Ommatotriton ophryticus'' (Berthold, 1846)
***''Ommatotriton vittatus'' (Gray, 1835)
**Genus '' Pachytriton'' - ten species
***'' Pachytriton airobranchiatus'' Li, Yuan, Li, and Wu, 2018
***''Pachytriton archospotus'' Shen, Shen, and Mo, 2008
***'' Pachytriton brevipes'' (Sauvage, 1876)
***''Pachytriton changi'' Nishikawa, Matsui, and Jiang, 2012
***''Pachytriton feii'' Nishikawa, Jiang, and Matsui, 2011
***''Pachytriton granulosus'' Chang, 1933
***''Pachytriton inexpectatus'' Nishikawa, Jiang, Matsui, and Mo, 2011
***''Pachytriton moi'' Nishikawa, Jiang, and Matsui, 2011
***''Pachytriton wuguanfui'' Yuan, Zhang, and Che, 2016
***''Pachytriton xanthospilos'' Wu, Wang, and Hanken, 2012
**Genus '' Paramesotriton'' - fourteen species
***'' Paramesotriton aurantius'' Yuan, Wu, Zhou, and Che, 2016
***''Paramesotriton caudopunctatus'' (Liu and Hu, 1973)
***'' Paramesotriton chinensis'' (Gray, 1859)
***''Paramesotriton deloustali'' (Bourret, 1934)
***''Paramesotriton fuzhongensis'' Wen, 1989
***''Paramesotriton guangxiensis'' (Huang, Tang, and Tang, 1983)
***'' Paramesotriton hongkongensis'' (Myers and Leviton, 1962)
***'' Paramesotriton labiatus'' (Unterstein, 1930)
***''Paramesotriton longliensis'' Li, Tian, Gu, and Xiong, 2008
***'' Paramesotriton maolanensis'' Gu, Chen, Tian, Li, and Ran, 2012
***'' Paramesotriton qixilingensis'' Yan, Zhao, Jiang, Hou, He, Murphy, and Che, 2014
***'' Paramesotriton wulingensis'' Wang, Tian, and Gu, 2013
***'' Paramesotriton yunwuensis'' Wu, Jiang, and Hanken, 2010
***'' Paramesotriton zhijinensis'' Li, Tian, and Gu, 2008
**Genus '' Pleurodeles'' - three species
***''Pleurodeles nebulosus'' (Guichenot, 1850)
***''Pleurodeles poireti'' (Gervais, 1836)
***''Pleurodeles waltl'' Michahelles, 1830
**Genus ''Taricha'' - four species
***''Taricha granulosa'' (Skilton, 1849)
***''Taricha rivularis'' (Twitty, 1935)
***''Taricha sierrae'' (Twitty, 1942)
***'' Taricha torosa'' (Rathke, 1833)
**Genus ''Triturus'' (crested newts) - nine species
***'' Triturus anatolicus'' Wielstra & Arntzen, 2016
***''Triturus carnifex'' (Laurenti, 1768)
***''Triturus cristatus'' (Laurenti, 1768)
***''Triturus dobrogicus'' (Kiritzescu, 1768)
***''Triturus ivanbureschi'' Arntzen & Wielstra, 2013
***''Triturus karelinii'' (Strauch, 1870)
***''Triturus macedonicus'' (Karaman, 1922)
***'' Triturus marmoratus'' (Latreille, 1800)
***''Triturus pygmaeus'' (Wolterstorff, 1905)
**Genus '' Tylototriton'' (crocodile newts) - twenty-five species
***'' Tylototriton anguliceps'' Le, Nguyen, Nishikawa, Nguyen, Pham, Matsui, Bernardes, and Nguyen, 2015
***''Tylototriton anhuiensis'' Qian, Sun, Li, Guo, Pan, Kang, Wang, Jiang, Wu, and Zhang, 2017
***'' Tylototriton asperrimus'' Unterstein, 1930
***''Tylototriton broadoridgus'' Shen, Jiang, and Mo, 2012
***''Tylototriton dabienicus'' Chen, Wang, and Tao, 2010
***'' Tylototriton hainanensis'' Fei, Ye, and Yang, 1984
***''Tylototriton himalayanus'' Khatiwada, Wang, Ghimire, Vasudevan, Paudel, and Jiang, 2015
***''Tylototriton kachinorum'' Zaw, Lay, Pawangkhanant, Gorin, and Poyarkov, 2019
***''Tylototriton kweichowensis'' Fang and Chang, 1932
***''Tylototriton liuyangensis'' Yang, Jiang, Shen, and Fei, 2014
***''Tylototriton lizhengchangi'' Hou, Zhang, Jiang, Li and Lu, 2012
***''Tylototriton ngarsuensis'' Grismer, Wood, Quah, Thura, Espinoza, Grismer, Murdoch, and Lin, 2018
***''Tylototriton notialis'' Stuart, Phimmachak, Sivongxay, and Robichaud, 2010
***'' Tylototriton panhai'' Nishikawa, Khonsue, Pomchote, and Matsui, 2013
***''Tylototriton podichthys'' Phimmachak, Aowphol, and Stuart, 2015
***''Tylototriton pseudoverrucosus'' Hou, Gu, Zhang, Zeng, and Lu, 2012
***''Tylototriton shanjing'' Nussbaum, Brodie, and Yang, 1995
***''Tylototriton shanorum'' Nishikawa, Matsui, and Rao, 2014
***''Tylototriton taliangensis'' Liu, 1950
***'' Tylototriton uyenoi'' Nishikawa, Khonsue, Pomchote, and Matsui, 2013
***'' Tylototriton verrucosus'' Anderson, 1871
***'' Tylototriton vietnamensis'' Böhme, Schöttler, Nguyen, and Köhler, 2005
***'' Tylototriton wenxianensis'' Fei, Ye, and Yang, 1984
***'' Tylototriton yangi'' Hou, Zhang, Zhou, Li, and Lu, 2012
***''Tylototriton ziegleri'' Nishikawa, Matsui, and Nguyen, 2013
*Subfamily Salamandrinae
**Genus ''Chioglossa'' - one species
***''Chioglossa lusitanica'' Bocage, 1864
**Genus '' Lyciasalamandra'' - seven species
***''Lyciasalamandra antalyana'' (Başoğlu and Baran, 1976)
***''Lyciasalamandra atifi'' (Başoğlu, 1967)
***''Lyciasalamandra billae'' (Franzen and Klewen, 1987)
***'' Lyciasalamandra fazilae'' (Başoğlu and Atatür, 1975 "1974")
***''Lyciasalamandra flavimembris'' (Mutz and Steinfartz, 1995)
***'' Lyciasalamandra helverseni'' (Pieper, 1963)
***''Lyciasalamandra luschani'' (Steindachner, 1891)
**Genus ''Mertensiella'' - one species
***'' Mertensiella caucasica'' (Waga, 1876)
**Genus ''Salamandra'' (fire salamanders) - seven species
***'' Salamandra algira'' Bedriaga, 1883
***'' Salamandra atra'' Laurenti, 1768
***'' Salamandra corsica'' Savi, 1838
***'' Salamandra infraimmaculata'' Martens, 1885
***'' Salamandra lanzai'' Nascetti, Andreone, Capula, and Bullini, 1988
***'' Salamandra longirostris'' Joger and Steinfartz, 1994
***'' Salamandra salamandra'' (Linnaeus, 1758)
*Subfamily Salamandrininae
**Genus ''Salamandrina''- two species
***'' Salamandrina perspicillata'' (Savi, 1821)
***'' Salamandrina terdigitata'' (Bonnaterre, 1789)

Fossil record

Salamandrids have a substantial fossil record spanning most of the Cenozoic. The oldest known fossils date from the Thanetian (Paleocene), but these, and most other known fossil salamandrids apparently belong to the crown group. The sole known stem-salamandrid is ''Phosphotriton sigei'', from the Quercy Phosphorites Formation, which apparently dates from the Middle to Late Eocene.

References

External links

Tree of Life: SalamandridaeLiving Under WorldTylototriton.org

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Salamandroidea
Amphibian families
Taxa named by Georg August Goldfuss