Fossil Salamanders From Southern Appalachia

The Seal Salamander, Desmognathus 
monticola Dunn, 1916. JCM
Salamanders, particularly the lungless plethodontids, are specious in the southern Appalachia. More than 60 species can be found in the streams and on the forest floor, and at some locations the ir may be as many as 15 species living together. The cool, wet, ancient forests that have survived to the present seem to have created ideal conditions for the lungless salamanders to radiate into dozens of ecological niches. Now, Boardman and Schubert report on the fossil salamander fauna found at the Gray Fossil Site in northeastern Tennessee. A diverse fossil salamander assemblage of the Mio-Pliocene (4.7-7 MYA) has been uncovered, and it includes at least five taxa (Ambsytoma, Plethodon, Spelerpinae, Desmognathus, and Notophthalmus) from three families (Ambystomatidae, Plethodontidae, and Salamandridae, respectively), all of these taxa are present in the area today and support the hypothesis that a woodland-pond environment was present at the site of the site. The fossils document the earliest records for these families in the Appalachian Mountains, as well as representing the earliest records for plethodontids and ambystomatids east of the Mississippi River. The full article can be found by following the link below.

Boardman, G. S. and Schubert, B. W. 2011. First Mio-Pliocene salamander fauna from the southern Appalachians. Palaeontologia Electronica 14(2):16A:19p.

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