| Streamside salamander | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Urodela |
| Family: | Ambystomatidae |
| Genus: | Ambystoma |
| Species: | A. barbouri |
| Binomial name | |
| Ambystoma barbouri Kraus & Petranka, 1989 | |
The streamside salamander (Ambystoma barbouri) is a species of mole salamander from North America, occurring in several Midwestern states of the US. [2]
The streamside salamander is a medium-sized amystomatid salamander. It typically has a relatively small had and a short rounded snout. The salamander's body is relatively short and flaccid. There are 14-15 distinct costal grooves when fully grown. The tail is fairly short and thick, and it contains costal grooves that correspond directly to the vertebrae. Coloring is typically a dark black background covered in lichen-like markings in gray and brown. The species has more teeth, with a unique cusp shape, in its maxillary and premaxillary positions than its close relatives teeth, and is somewhat stockier. [3]
The species is found in central Kentucky, southwestern Ohio, southeastern Indiana. There is an isolated population in Livingston County, Kentucky. Overall distribution is uncertain due to the species' cryptic habits and possible confusion or hybridization with the small-mouth salamander. [3] Adults can be found underground and under rocks or leaves in deciduous forests at moderate elevations. [1]
The streamside salamander is closely related to the pond-breeding small-mouth salamander, from which it is believed to have diverged during the late Pleistocene era as a result of climatic warming. Disappearance of pond habitats are thought to have forced the species to adapt to the new stream habitat. [3] [4]
The female places eggs on the underside of submerged rocks in stream pools to reduce risk of predation on eggs by fish. The salamander also uses olfactory cues to detect the presence of fish and tends to avoid placing eggs in pools that have high fish densities. [5] Adults are not normally at risk of fish predation, but both eggs and young larvae may be targeted. It has been shown that the hatching time of streamside salamander eggs was responsive to the presence of green sunfish in the habitat, leading to the emergence of larvae that are larger and less easily preyed on, or possibly less susceptible to involuntary drift into areas with high fish densities. [6]
Larvae show a range of coloration types that are believed to be driven by several different mechanisms. In fish-rich habitats, larvae tend to have light pigmentation that assists in blending in with the stream substrate and reduces the likelihood of being detected by predators. In the absence of predators, darker pigmentation that may assist in maintaining a higher body temperature and thus greater activity and foraging levels is more common. [7] Risk of UV light damage may also drive a preference for darker coloration. Larvae may be able to play off these differing pigmentation drivers against each other by preferentially seeking out darker sediment that allows high camouflage while maintaining dark pigmentation. [8]
The streamside salamander has been a subject of interest in understanding the interaction between gene flow and natural selection. Salamander larvae that live in the presence of green sunfish are more likely to survive if they have stronger antipredator behavior, including reduced activity; however, larvae that are born in fish-free, ephemeral pools have higher survival with increased activity and higher feeding rates, traits which allow them to metamorphose before their aquatic habitat dries. Salamanders from highly isolated populations occupying habitat harboring fish have stronger antipredator behavior than salamanders from populations that are less isolated and more likely to experience gene flow from populations occupying fish-free habitats; this suggests that gene flow may hinder local adaptation of salamander populations to fish presence. [9]
Populations of the streamside salamander show evidence of adaptation to local environmental conditions, including the presence or absence of fish, [9] as well as abiotic environmental factors. [10] A landscape genomics study identified a small subset of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at which allele frequencies show significant correlations with mean annual temperature, temperature seasonality, and annual precipitation; [10] genes near the aforementioned SNPs function in hypoxia response and development, suggesting that geographic variation in oxygen availability (which correlates with water temperature and elevation) may impose divergent selection among salamander populations. [10]
Total streamside salamander population is estimated at above 10,000 individuals, but precise data are lacking. The species is under pressure from habitat destruction (conversion of forests to pasture and residential areas) and water pollution. [1] Triphenyltin, a common pesticide used in pecan, potatoes, beets, celery, coffee, and rice agriculture was found to cause streamside salamander larva mortality of 90% if present at concentrations above 5 µg/L. However, even lower levels led to reduced feeding and growth rates. [11]
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 axolotl is a paedomorphic salamander closely related to the tiger salamander. It is unusual among amphibians in that it reaches adulthood without undergoing metamorphosis. Instead of taking to the land, adults remain aquatic and gilled. The species was originally found in several lakes underlying what is now Mexico City, such as Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco. These lakes were drained by Spanish settlers after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, leading to the destruction of much of the axolotl’s natural habitat.
The mole salamanders are a group of advanced salamanders endemic to North America. The group has become famous due to the presence of the axolotl, widely used in research due to its paedomorphosis, and the tiger salamander which is the official amphibian of many US states, and often sold as a pet.
The tiger salamander is a species of mole salamander and one of the largest terrestrial salamanders in North America.
The spotted salamander or yellow-spotted salamander is a mole salamander common in eastern United States and Canada. It is the state amphibian of Ohio and South Carolina. The species ranges from Nova Scotia, to Lake Superior, to southern Georgia and Texas. Its embryos have been found to have symbiotic algae living in and around them, the only known example of vertebrate cells hosting an endosymbiont microbe.
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.
The eastern newt is a common newt of eastern North America. It frequents small lakes, ponds, and streams or nearby wet forests. The eastern newt produces tetrodotoxin, which makes the species unpalatable to predatory fish and crayfish. It has a lifespan of 12 to 15 years in the wild, and it may grow to 5 in (13 cm) 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 blue-spotted salamander is a mole salamander native to the Great Lakes states and northeastern United States, and parts of Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Their range is known to extend to James Bay to the north, and southeastern Manitoba to the west.
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 Ringed salamander, marbled salamander, and spotted salamander. This species of salamander has cannibal behavior especially those in large body size.
The long-toed salamander is a mole salamander in the family Ambystomatidae. This species, typically 4.1–8.9 cm (1.6–3.5 in) long when mature, is characterized by its mottled black, brown, and yellow pigmentation, and its long outer fourth toe on the hind limbs. Analysis of fossil records, genetics, and biogeography suggest A. macrodactylum and A. laterale are descended from a common ancestor that gained access to the western Cordillera with the loss of the mid-continental seaway toward the Paleocene.
The Santa Cruz long-toed salamander is an endangered subspecies of the long-toed salamander, which is found only close to a few isolated ponds in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties in California. It has a black body, broken yellow or orange irregular striping along its spine, and a tail fin well evolved for swimming. Like other mole salamanders, it is found near pools or slow-moving streams and has a very secretive lifestyle, making it difficult to find.
The marbled salamander is a species of mole salamander found in the eastern 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.
Ambystoma talpoideum, the mole salamander, is a species of salamander found in much of the eastern and central United States, from Florida to Texas, north to Illinois, east to Kentucky, with isolated populations in Virginia and Indiana. Older sources often refer to this species as the tadpole salamander because some individuals remain in a neotenic state. This salamander lives among the leaf litter on the forest floor, migrating to ponds to breed.
The silvery salamander is a hybrid species of mole salamander from the United States of America and Canada. It is usually between 5.5 – 7.75 in long and is slender with many small silvery-blue spots on its back and sides. It is brownish grey and the area around its vent is grey. This unisexual Ambystoma hybrid species, has been grouped with other unisexual ambystomatids that takes genetic material from Jefferson salamander, streamside salamander, small-mouthed salamander, tiger salamander and the blue-spotted salamander.
The reticulated flatwoods salamander is a species of mole salamander, an amphibian in the family Ambystomatidae. The species is native to a small portion of the southeastern coastal plain of the United States in the western panhandle of Florida and extreme southwestern Georgia. The species once occurred in portions of southern Alabama but is now considered extirpated there. Its ecology and life history are nearly identical to its sister species, the frosted flatwoods salamander. A. bishopi inhabits seasonally wet pine flatwoods and pine savannas west of the Apalachicola River-Flint River system. The fire ecology of longleaf pine savannas is well-known, but there is less information on natural fire frequencies of wetland habitats in this region. Like the frosted flatwoods salamander, the reticulated flatwoods salamander breeds in ephemeral wetlands with extensive emergent vegetation, probably maintained by summer fires. Wetlands overgrown with woody shrubs are less likely to support breeding populations.
The mountain stream salamander or mountain stream siredon is a species of mole salamander that only lives in central México.
The spotted sunfish, also known as a stumpknocker, is a member of the freshwater sunfish family Centrarchidae and order perciformes. The redspotted sunfish, redear sunfish and pumpkinseed sunfish are its closest relatives. Lepomis punctatus is olive-green to brown in color with black to reddish spots at the base of each scale that form rows of dots on the side. The scientific name punctatus refers to this spotted pattern. It was first described in 1831 by Valenciennes.
The corrugated darter is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. It is endemic to the eastern United States only known from Caney Fork, Tennessee, where it has been shown to have as many as five subgroups. They are active hunters which prey on insects, fry, and possibly young snails. Multiple species and subspecies of these darters can coexist where substrate is varied, so this must be carefully preserved to accommodate many similar species. With the warming of spring, E. basilare enters its breeding cycle and males develop their dimorphic coloration. Like most darters, it hugs the stream bed, using its body shape and fin posture to maintain its position.
Parthenogenesis is a form of reproduction where eggs develop without fertilization, resulting in unisexual species. This phenomenon is closely related with reproductive modes such as hybridogenesis, where fertilization occurs, but the paternal DNA is not passed on. Among amphibians, it is seen in numerous frog and salamander species, but has not been recorded in caecilians.
