Flatwoods Salamander
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| Ambystoma cingulatum (Cope, 1868) |
The Flatwoods Salamander (Ambystoma cingulatum) has a very narrow distribution occupying seasonally wet, pine flatwoods and savannahs from southern South Carolina, southern Georgia, and northern Florida west to southern Alabama (Petranka 1998). Prior to European settlement it was found primarily in seasonally wet, longleaf pine (Pinus palustris)-wiregrass (Aristida stricta) communities. Populations are discontinuous and rapidly becoming fragmented throughout the range as longleaf pine habitat is destroyed and replaced with slash pine. There may have been extirpations occurring in Alabama, and recent work suggests the extirpation of a sizable breeding population in a period of approximately 22 years (Means et al. 1996).
The old subspecies Ambystoma cingulatum bishopi has recently been reinstated and upgraded to species level as Ambystoma bishopi. The species' range is from Alabama to Georgia and Florida. A. bishopi appears to be confined to the west of the Apalachicola watershed, with A. cingulatum lying to the east. More information is still to be collected on this, the newest species in the Ambystomidae family, and surely one of the most threatened species of amphibian in the USA.
[edit] References
- Palis & Hammerson (2004). Ambystoma cingulatum. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map, a brief justification of why this species is vulnerable, and the criteria used.
[edit] External links
- Coastal Plains Institute. Research facility dedicated to the preservation of the herpetofauna characteristic of the Atlantic Coastal Plain including the Flatwoods Salamander.
