Shenandoah Salamander, Part 1 || Urodela | Amphibian | Vertebrate | Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah Salamanders, Part 1 || Urodela | Amphibian | Vertebrate | Plethodon shenandoah | Shenandoah National Park.

Shenandoah Salamanders are small amphibians found only in Shenandoah National Park. Why are they important and what can they teach us about climate change?

The Shenandoah salamander (Plethodon shenandoah) is a small, terrestrial salamander found exclusively in 
Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The Shenandoah salamander inhabits a very small range of land on just three mountain peaks. Due to the small habitat range, interspecies competition, and climate change, the population of the Shenandoah salamander is vulnerable to extinction. Mitigating human effects on the habitat of the species will be essential in attempting to preserve and grow the population.

The adult Shenandoah salamander is slender and moderate in size, with a total length of 3.5 to 4.5 inches (7 cm - 10 cm). The species has two distinct color phases: striped and unstriped. The striped color phase has a narrow stripe down the center of its back that can range in color from red to yellow, while the unstriped color phase is uniformly dark with occasional scattered brass-colored flecks. In both color phases, white or yellow spots occur along the sides of the body. The Shenandoah salamander is similar in appearance to the red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus). However, the two species can be distinguished in many ways. The stripe on the Shenandoah salamander takes up one-third of its dorsal area, while the stripe on the red-backed salamander is wider and takes up approximately two-thirds of the dorsal area. In addition, the Shenandoah salamander lacks the “salt and pepper” color pattern on its underside that is characteristic of P. cinereus, and has a slightly larger and more broadly rounded head. Shenandoah salamanders are members of the family 
Plethondontidae, the lungless salamanders that breathe through the surface of their skin. Due to the lack of lungs, successful respiration depends on the ability to maintain skin moisture, thus restricting body size and necessitating a moist environment such as forested areas. This species is chiefly nocturnal, hunting for food at night and taking cover in dark, damp locations like rock crevices and underneath logs during the day.

Credit:
National Park Service (NPS)
Wikipedia

Amphibians are four-limbed and 
ectothermic vertebrates of the class 
Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Thus amphibians typically start out as larvae 
living in water, but some species have developed behavioural adaptations to bypass this.

The young generally undergo 
metamorphosis from larva with gills to an adult air-breathing form with lungs. Amphibians use their skin as a secondary respiratory surface and some small terrestrial salamanders and frogs lack lungs and rely entirely on their skin. They are superficially similar to reptiles like 
lizards but, along with mammals and birds, reptiles are amniotes and do not require water bodies in which to breed. With their complex reproductive needs and permeable skins, amphibians are often ecological indicators; in recent decades there has been a dramatic decline in amphibian populations for many species around the globe.

The three modern orders of amphibians are Anura (the frogs), Urodela (the salamanders), and Apoda (the caecilians). A fourth group, the Albanerpetontidae, became extinct around 2 million years ago. The number of known amphibian species is approximately 8,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. The smallest amphibian (and vertebrate) in the world is a frog from New Guinea (Paedophryne amauensis) with a length of just 7.7 mm (0.30 in). The largest living amphibian is the 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) 
South China giant salamander (Andrias sligoi), but this is dwarfed by prehistoric temnospondyls such as  Mastodonsaurus 
which could reach up to 6 metres in length. The study of amphibians is called 
batrachology, while the study of both reptiles and amphibians is called 
herpetology.

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