Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniotic, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all tetrapods excluding the amniotes. All extant (living) amphibians belong to the monophyletic subclass Lissamphibia, with three living orders: Anura, Urodela (salamanders), and Gymnophiona (caecilians). Evolved to be mostly semiaquatic, amphibians have adapted to inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living in freshwater, wetland or terrestrial ecosystems. Their life cycle typically starts out as aquatic larvae with gills known as tadpoles, but some species have developed behavioural adaptations to bypass this.
The hellbender, also known as the hellbender salamander, is a species of aquatic giant salamander endemic to the eastern and central United States. It is the largest salamander in North America. A member of the family Cryptobranchidae, the hellbender is the only extant member of the genus Cryptobranchus. Other closely related salamanders in the same family are in the genus Andrias, which contains the Japanese and Chinese giant salamanders. The hellbender is much larger than any other salamander in its geographic range, and employs an unusual adaption for respiration through cutaneous gas exchange via capillaries found in its lateral skin folds. It fills a particular niche — both as a predator and prey — in its ecosystem, which either it or its ancestors have occupied for around 65 million years. The species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to the impacts of disease and widespread habitat loss and degradation throughout much of its range.
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten extant salamander families are grouped together under the order Urodela from the group Caudata. Urodela is a scientific Latin term based on the Ancient Greek οὐρά δήλη: ourà dēlē "conspicuous tail". Caudata is the Latin for "tailed ones", from cauda: "tail".
Pryor Creek or Pryor is a city in and county seat of Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 8,659 at the 2000 census and 9,539 in the 2010 census.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a national park of the United States in the southeast, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The park contains some of the highest mountains in eastern North America, including Kuwohi, Mount Guyot, and Mount Le Conte. The border between the two states runs northeast to southwest through the center of the park. The Appalachian Trail passes through the center of the park on its route from Georgia to Maine. With 13 million visitors in 2023, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States.
The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains, and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934 and, with over 11 million visits per year, is the most visited national park in the United States.
The Piney Woods is a temperate coniferous forest terrestrial ecoregion in the Southern United States covering 54,400 square miles (141,000 km2) of East Texas, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and southeastern Oklahoma. These coniferous forests are dominated by several species of pine as well as hardwoods including hickory and oak. Historically the most dense part of this forest region was the Big Thicket though the lumber industry dramatically reduced the forest concentration in this area and throughout the Piney Woods during the 19th and 20th centuries. The World Wide Fund for Nature considers the Piney Woods to be one of the critically endangered ecoregions of the United States. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines most of this ecoregion as the South Central Plains.
The California tiger salamander is a vulnerable amphibian native to California. It is a mole salamander. Previously considered to be a subspecies of the tiger salamander, the California tiger salamander was recently designated a separate species again. The California tiger salamander distinct population segment (DPS) in Sonoma County and the Santa Barbara County DPS are listed as federally endangered, while the Central California DPS is listed as federally threatened. The Sonoma County, south San Joaquin, and the Santa Barbara County DPS have diverged from the rest of the California tiger salamander populations for over one million years, since the Pleistocene and they may warrant status as separate species.
Eastern newts are 2-4'inch long in length. These animals are common aquarium pets, being either collected from the wild or sold commercially. The striking bright orange juvenile stage, which is land-dwelling, is known as a red eft. Some sources blend the general name of the species and that of the red-spotted newt subspecies into the eastern red-spotted newt.
The Texas blind salamander is a rare and endangered cave-dwelling troglobite amphibian native to San Marcos, Hays County, Texas, specifically the San Marcos Pool of the Edwards Aquifer. This species resembles the olm, another stygofaunal salamander from Europe. Unlike the olm, this amphibian's body is not as elongated, and also has less reduced digits on its limbs.
The ringed salamander is a species of mole salamander native to hardwood and mixed hardwood-pine forested areas in and around the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. This species of salamander has slander body, small head, and long tail. They are usually found to have various dorsal color from dark gray to dark brown. Various close relatives are found such as marbled salamander and spotted salamander. This species of salamander has cannibal behavior especially those in large body size.
The frosted flatwoods salamander is an endangered salamander species native to the Southeastern United States.
The San Marcos salamander is a small species of aquatic, lungless salamander native to the United States, endemic to Spring Lake and a small region of the headwaters of the San Marcos River near Aquarena Springs, in Hays County, Texas. It is one to two inches long, with a slender body and external gills, and is reddish-brown in color.
The West Virginia spring salamander is a species of troglobitic salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to West Virginia, the United States.
Great Valley Grasslands State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving a parcel of remnant native grassland in the San Joaquin Valley. Such a temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome was once widespread throughout the whole Central Valley. The 2,826-acre (1,144 ha) park was established in 1982. Largely undeveloped, it was formed by combining two former state park units: San Luis Island and Fremont Ford State Recreation Area. Its chief attractions for visitors are spring wildflowers, fishing, and wildlife watching.
The Appalachian temperate rainforest or Appalachian cloud forest is located in the southern Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States and is among the most biodiverse temperate regions in the world. Centered primarily around Southern Appalachian spruce–fir forests between southwestern Virginia and southwestern North Carolina, it has a cool, mild climate with highly variable temperature and precipitation patterns linked to elevation. The temperate rainforest as a whole has a mean annual temperature near 7 °C (45 °F) and annual precipitation exceeding 140 centimeters (55 in), though the highest peaks can reach more than 200 centimeters (79 in) and are frequently shrouded in fog.
Stanley E. Trauth is an American herpetologist and professor of zoology and environmental studies at Arkansas State University. He is also the curator of the herpetological collection of the Arkansas State University Museum of Zoology.
Since the recession of the last glaciation, isolated bodies of water high in mountain crevasses have been topographically separated from fish. Within Washington state a number of lakes in the Olympic and Cascade Mountains have been stocked since the early 20th century. Prior to the existence of a state wildlife management agency, the U.S. Forest Service stocked mountain lakes with rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and eastern brook trout. High lake management of this era largely focused on improving sport fishing opportunities and secondarily establishing ecological balance. Natural reproduction of fish species, especially eastern brook trout, has led to overpopulation and “stunting” from starvation in low nutrient environments. The result has been decreased interest from fishermen, while causing large, negative impacts on natural lake biota. Addressing concerns for biodiversity can positively impact agendas for the conservation of species, as well as high lakes fishery management.
David A. Steen is an American herpetologist and conservation biologist. He is Reptile and Amphibian Research Leader of the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, and was previously a research professor at Auburn University, where he completed his Ph.D. Steen runs a popular Twitter account where he offers reptile and amphibian identification and dispels myths about oft-maligned snakes such as copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes.
The Ozark hellbender is a subspecies of the hellbender. The subspecies is strictly native to the mountain streams of the Ozark Plateau in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Its nicknames include lasagna lizard and snot otter. This large salamander grows to a total length of 29–57 cm (11–22 in) over a lifespan of 30 years. The Ozark hellbender is a nocturnal predator that hides under large flat rocks and primarily consumes crayfish and small fish. As of 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has listed the subspecies as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The population decline of the subspecies is caused by habitat destruction and modification, overutilization, disease and predation, and low reproductive rates. Conservation programs have been put in place to help protect the subspecies.
