| Arguello slender salamander | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Urodela |
| Family: | Plethodontidae |
| Genus: | Batrachoseps |
| Species: | B. wakei |
| Binomial name | |
| Batrachoseps wakei Sweet and Jockusch, 2021 | |
The Arguello slender salamander (Batrachoseps wakei) is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California, where it is found only in a small area of coastal Santa Barbara County. [1] [2]
It was discovered in 2006, when an individual was found in the debris of an abandoned Coast Guard station at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Although this range was within that of the black-bellied slender salamander (B. nigriventris), this individual was clearly distinctive from B. nigriventris and more closely resembled the Channel Islands slender salamander (B. pacificus); due to this, it was thought to represent an introduced population of B. pacificus. However, phylogenetic analysis found it to fall outside the B. pacificus clade, and to be an undescribed species that was sister to the clade comprising B. pacificus and the garden slender salamander (B. major). It was described in 2021 as Batrachoseps wakei, the specific epithet honoring famed herpetologist David B. Wake, who described many species of Batrachoseps and had passed away a few months prior to the publishing of the paper. [3]
It is likely that this species evolved due the activity of the Southern California faults, with tectonic activity transporting the land inhabited by the ancestral Batrachoseps north and isolating it from its closest relatives, causing it to diverge into a distinct species. [3] [4]
It is restricted to a narrow marine terrace centered on Point Arguello. It is thought to be a relict species with a very small range. [3]
This is a relatively large Batrachoseps species with a dorsal pattern of vermiculate tan markings. Males can grow to 65 mm (2.6 in) and females to 68 mm (2.7 in) in snout–vent length. It differs from its closest relatives in its smaller head, lack of melanophores on the throat and chest, and extensive orange patterns on the tail. [3]
The Tehachapi slender salamander is a species of plethodontid salamander, and one of the larger members of genus Batrachoseps. It is endemic to California, in Kern County in the western United States.
Batrachoseps is a genus of lungless salamanders (plethodontids) often called slender salamanders. They can be distinguished from other lungless salamanders by the four toes they have on each foot.
The black-bellied slender salamander is a small species of salamander that is endemic to California.
David Burton Wake was an American herpetologist. He was professor of integrative biology and Director and curator of herpetology of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. Wake is known for his work on the biology and evolution of salamanders as well as general issues of vertebrate evolutionary biology. He has served as president of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the American Society of Naturalists, and American Society of Zoologists. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Linnean Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and in 1998 was elected into the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the 2006 Leidy Award from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
The California slender salamander is a lungless salamander that is found primarily in coastal mountain areas of Northern California, United States as well as in a limited part of the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, California, in patches of the northern Central Valley of California, and in extreme southwestern Oregon. This species resides primarily in a limited range within California as one of a handful quasi-endemic amphibians in the state.
The Hell Hollow slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California, in Mariposa County in western United States.
The Gabilan Mountains slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California in the United States, where it is distributed along the Central Coast region from Santa Cruz to northern Kern County.
The gregarious slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. Its natural habitats are California interior chaparral and woodlands and temperate grasslands in the lower foothills of the western Sierra Nevada and the eastern Central Valley in California, United States.
The San Simeon slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae.
The Santa Lucia Mountains slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California in the United States, where it is known only from Monterey County.
The garden slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is found in northern Baja California in Mexico and Southern California in the United States.
The lesser slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae.
The Channel Islands slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae.
The Kings River slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California, in Fresno County in the western United States.
The relictual slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California, found only a small area in Kern County, California.
The Oregon slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae from the Northwestern United States.
Pseudoeurycea ruficauda, also known as the orange-tailed agile salamander, is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the Sierra Mazateca, a part of Sierra Madre de Oaxaca of Mexico. The specific name ruficauda derives from the Latin words rufous (=reddish) and cauda (=tail) and refers to the reddish orange tail of this salamander. P. jaguar is its closest relative.
Elizabeth L. Jockusch is an American evolutionary biologist who studies plethodontidae salamanders and other organisms. While working with David Wake and others, she has identified multiple new species of Batrachoseps salamanders. She works as a professor and lab director of the Jockusch Lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut.