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, which is much larger than all other salamanders in its geographic range, employs an unusual means of respiration, and 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. Salamander diversity is highest in eastern North America, especially in the Appalachian Mountains; most species are found in the Holarctic realm, with some species present in the Neotropical realm.
The Cryptobranchidae are a family of fully aquatic salamanders commonly known as the giant salamanders. They include the largest living amphibians. The family is native to China, Japan, and the eastern United States. They constitute one of two living families—the other being the Asiatic salamanders belonging to the family Hynobiidae—within the Cryptobranchoidea, one of two main divisions of living salamanders.
True frogs is the common name for the frog family Ranidae. They have the widest distribution of any frog family. They are abundant throughout most of the world, occurring on all continents except Antarctica. The true frogs are present in North America, northern South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The Asian range extends across the East Indies to New Guinea and a single species, the Australian wood frog, has spread into the far north of Australia.
The Japanese giant salamander is a species of fully aquatic giant salamander endemic to Japan. With a length of up to 5 feet (1.5 m), it is the third-largest salamander in the world, only being surpassed by the very similar and closely related Chinese giant salamander and the South China giant salamander.
The Chinese giant salamander is one of the largest salamanders and one of the largest amphibians in the world. It is fully aquatic, and is endemic to rocky mountain streams and lakes in the Yangtze river basin of central China. Either it or a close relative has been introduced to Kyoto Prefecture in Japan and to Taiwan. It is considered critically endangered in the wild due to habitat loss, pollution, and overcollection, as it is considered a delicacy and used in traditional Chinese medicine. On farms in central China, it is extensively farmed and sometimes bred, although many of the salamanders on the farms are caught in the wild. It has been listed as one of the top-10 "focal species" in 2008 by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered project.
The yellow-spotted salamander is a species of salamander in the family Hynobiidae, endemic to China, where it is known from Nanchuan in Chongqing, Suiyang in Guizhou, Lichuan in Hubei, and Sangzhi in Hunan Province. However, genetic methods have revealed cryptic species within the Liua–Pseudohynobius complex, and the actual distribution of the yellow-spotted salamander is turning out to be different. Only animals from Lichuan in Hubei and Sangzhi have been positively identified as being yellow-spotted salamanders, whereas animals collected from Nanchuan were described as a new species, P. jinfo, by Wei et al. in 2009.
Odorrana graminea, the large odorous frog, inhabits fast-flowing streams in elevated mountainous regions of Southern China and Northern Indochina. It is one of 56 species in the genus Odorrana. Male O. graminea are noted for their ultrasonic call characteristics and are one of three frog species able to detect ultrasonic frequencies, likely evolved to facilitate communication amidst noisy streams and waterfalls. Studies on O. graminea courtship vocalizations suggest female preference for increased proportion of nonlinear vocal phenomena (NLP).
Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species are animal species which have a high 'EDGE score', a metric combining endangered conservation status with the genetic distinctiveness of the particular taxon. Distinctive species have few closely related species, and EDGE species are often the only surviving member of their genus or even higher taxonomic rank. The extinction of such species would therefore represent a disproportionate loss of unique evolutionary history and biodiversity.
Andrias is a genus of giant salamanders. It includes the largest salamanders in the world, with A. japonicus reaching a length of 1.44 metres, and A. sligoi reaching 1.80 metres. While extant species are only known from East Asia, several extinct species in the genus are known from late Oligocene and Neogene aged fossils collected in Europe and North America, indicating that the genus formerly had a much wider range.
Three Kingdoms is a 2010 Chinese television series based on the events in the late Eastern Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. The plot is adapted from the 14th century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and other stories about the Three Kingdoms period. Directed by Gao Xixi, the series had a budget of over 160 million RMB and took five years of pre-production work. Shooting of the series commenced in October 2008, and it was released in China in May 2010.
Pelodiscus is a genus of turtles in the family Trionychidae, the softshells. Based on genetic and morphological analysis there are seven valid species. They are native to Eastern Asia, ranging from the Amur region, south through China and Korea, as far south as Vietnam. Populations in Japan are thought to likely originate from historic human introductions.
Zhao Ermi was a Chinese herpetologist, born in Chengdu. His ancestors were Manchu Bannerman of Irgen Gioro clan who were stationed in Chengdu during Qing dynasty. He studied biology at West China Union University, under the tutelage of Liu Chengzhao. He was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2001. He died at West China Medical Center of Sichuan University on 24 December 2016.
The South China giant salamander may be the largest species of salamander and the largest amphibian in the world. It is endemic to southern China, mainly in the Pearl River basin south of the Nanling Mountains. It is extremely endangered and may no longer exist in the wild.
Genome sequencing of endangered species is the application of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies in the field of conservation biology, with the aim of generating life history, demographic and phylogenetic data of relevance to the management of endangered wildlife.
The Jiangxi giant salamander is a species of very large salamander endemic to Jiangxi Province in China. It is the only Chinese Andrias species known to have a genetically pure wild population.
Andrias matthewi, or Matthew's giant salamander, is an extinct species of giant salamander from the Miocene of North America. It belongs to the genus Andrias, which contains the living Asian giant salamanders. It is the largest salamander to have ever existed, with a maximum estimated length of 2.3 m. Its fossils have been found in Nebraska, Colorado, and Saskatchewan.
