A group of researchers have identified three new species of black-bellied salamander.
Based on the findings, the new salamanders originated from black-bellied populations that were previously thought to be a single species and are now found in the southern Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States.
New species of salamander in the Appalachian Mountains
Etienne Assenheimer/Unsplash
The finding clarifies "cryptic" species, which are defined as those without evident variations between populations that have undergone an evolutionary change, as per ScienceDaily.
The researchers claimed that although black-bellied salamanders have been classified as a single species for more than a century, there are small distinctions between them.
According to Pyron, black-bellied salamanders have been extensively researched for more than a century.
A cryptic dwarf species was identified in 2002, and by 2005, DNA data started to point to the existence of more species.
Scientists couldn't sequence genome-scale data until the NSF-funded study in 2020, when they discovered that there were in fact five species with comparable appearances.
Desmognathus quadramaculatus, a salamander species with a patchy historical record, was seen by the researchers to start.
They discovered that the specimens varied in size, shape, and color pattern, among other morphological, genetic, and geographic characteristics.
Following the sequencing of the D. quadramaculatus, the researchers found five distinct species, three of which constitute uncharted territory for scientists.
Now referred to as D. gvnigeusgwotli, D. kanawha, and D. mavrokoilius, the new species have new names.
One-third of the 750 salamander species that have been identified by science are found in North America, as per GWToday.
Currently, a research group headed by R. In the swampy Gulf Coastal Plain of southeast Mississippi and southwest Alabama, Alexander Pyron, the Robert F. Griggs Associate Professor of Biology at the George Washington University Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, has identified a new species of dusky salamander.
The discovery broadens understanding of the biodiversity in the coastal plain in the southeast of the United States, an area that satisfies the international standards for a biodiversity hotspot.
Despite hundreds of years of rigorous study, the area still holds a wealth of unexplored variety, according to academics.
This discovery demonstrated how much more scientists can learn right in our own backyards, according to Pyron.
The well-known naturalist E.O. Wilson referred to this area as "America's Amazon," where red wolves and ivory-billed woodpeckers previously roamed.
While learning how much biodiversity there was initially, humanity is losing it at a spectacular rate.
Salamanders are among the species that are most in danger of extinction globally, yet experts don't fully comprehend their richness.
Desmognathus pascagoula, a new species of salamander, was found to be similar to Desmognathus valentinei, a different newly discovered species, according to the researchers.
But the new species differs in certain physical, genetic, and geographical ways.
Many of these dusky salamanders are cryptic, which means it is difficult to tell them different with the unaided eye, which is one reason they remained unknown for so long, according to Pyron.
Only via genome sequencing can we truly understand how different they are.
Then, exact measurements of preserved specimens showed minute variations in features like head breadth that would otherwise go undetected.
To shed light on both D's biology and its biology in general, more research will be required. Academics have discovered information on pascagoula's historical and present-day geographic boundaries.
In order to see "portholes," postocular stripes, and snouts, Pyron advised other field researchers and citizen scientists looking for the species to concentrate on photographs of the lateral surfaces of the body and head.
