plethodontids

The presence in Europe of plethodontids is unusual enough (albeit well known), but the biggest surprise in plethodontid research has been the recent discovery of an Asian member of the group, the Korean crevice salamander Karsenia koreana Min et al., 2005 (the animal depicted in the photo above).

Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

Wake argued that direct development had evolved twice in plethodontids (once within desmognathines and once again at the base of the bolitoglossin + plethodontin clade), and in both cases it had evolved from ancestors that possessed a larval stage.

Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

If this new phylogeny is valid (I should note by the way that Wake was on the authorship of Mueller et al., so it's not as if this study disagrees with his own research), it means that we have to re-assess the evolution of the different life history strategies seen in plethodontids.

Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

Coming eventually: agamas, tupuxuarids, fake Chinese turtles, temnospondyls for beginners, kinglets and the passerine supertree, more on sea snakes, anguids, giant eagles and plethodontids, those lost tree frogs, storks and (one day) rhinogradentians.

Giant killers: macropredation in lions Darren Naish 2006

So, as Chippindale et al. (2004) discussed, the reversal of direct development in plethodontine plethodontids shows yet again that complex features may be regained (they drew analogy with the re-evolution of wings in stick insects and of hindlimbs in snakes, though the evidence for the latter is still controversial).

Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

Several plethodontids exhibit a Mullerian mimicry complex in which several species have converged in appearance to warn predators of their general toxicity.

Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests 2008

A quick look at author dates for plethodontids reveals numerous recently named genera, among them Bradytriton Wake & Elias, 1983; Dendrotriton Wake & Elias, 1983; Nototriton Wake & Elias, 1983; Nyctanolis Wake & Elias, 1983; Ixalotriton Wake & Johnson, 1989; and Cryptotriton García-París & Wake, 2000.

Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

Conventionally allied with salamandrids, plethodontids may in fact be closest to amphiumas and rhyacotritonids.

Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

Incidentally, the ‘Wake’ listed there is David B. Wake, a leading expert on plethodontids at the University of California.

Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

More on plethodontids some time in the near future.

Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006