Caucasian salamander

Caucasian salamander
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Salamandridae
Genus: Mertensiella
Species: M. caucasica
Binomial name
Mertensialla caucasica
Waga, 1876

The Caucasian salamander (Mertensiella caucasica) is a species of stream-dwelling salamander in the Salamandridae family. This is a salamander of medium size, with a thin, elongated body. It is a relict species, endemic to the south-western Caucasus, in Georgia and Turkey. The subspecies M. c. janashvilii[2] is found at Mt. Mtirala near Batumi and probably along the Black Sea coast.

Habitat, behavior and diet

The Caucasian salamander lives along the banks of mountain brooks and small rivers with fast currents, both in the forest belt and above timberline, up to about 2400 m above sea level.[3][4][5][6][7] The species is secretive and strictly nocturnal, and mates on land. The male uses the protuberance on the upper side of the tail for opening the female's cloaca and passes the spermatophore directly to the female.[8][9] Their diets consist of invertebrates living in soil or shallow water; an important part of the diet is amphipods.[10][11]

Reproduction

Sexual dimorphism is expressed by presence of a horn-like protuberance at the upper side of the male's tail, a characteristic recorded only in this species and Luschan's salamander; for this reason, these two species were, for a long time, unified in the same genus, Mertensiella.[12] Mating happens in the summer. the female deposits 10–25 large eggs (0.5 mm in diameter) in hidden places in shallow water or in moist places near brooks.[1][8][9] The larvae hatch in one to two months and hibernate one to three times before metamorphosis.[13]

Evolution

In spite of external similarity with Luschan's salamander (protuberance on the tail), molecular data suggest the closest relative of M. caucasica is the gold-striped salamander (Chioglossa lusitanica) from the north-western Iberian Peninsula.[1][14] Separation from the sister taxon happened about 15 million years ago.[15] A palaeonthological species M. caucasica was found from the lower Pliocene of the Polish Carpathians, the fact suggesting a broader distribution of the species before the Ice Age.[16] Within the current range of the species, two evolutionary lineages are fully separated since the Pliocene: one from the Black Sea Basin, and another from Borjomi Gorge in Central Georgia, in spite of the absence of clear natural boundaries between these two areas.[17]

Threats

The salamander hardly has important natural enemies. The most important factor affecting it is habitat loss, caused by extensive logging in Georgia and construction works in Turkey. Large parts of the habitat of the salamander are not covered by any kind of protected areas.[1][7]

Subspecies

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ugur Kaya, Boris Tuniyev, Natalia Ananjeva, Nikolai Orlov, Theodore Papenfuss, Sergius Kuzmin, David Tarkhnishvili, Sako Tuniyev, Max Sparreboom, Ismail Ugurtas, Steven Anderson (2009) Mertensiella caucasica. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2.
  2. ↑ Tartarashvili, R.V. and Bakradze, M.A. (1989). "New subspecies of the Caucasian salamander". Bull. Acad. Sci. Of Georgia 133 (1): 177–179.
  3. ↑ Nikolsky, A. M. (1896). "Caucasian salamander (Salamandra caucasica Waga)". Ann. Zool. Mus. Imp. Acad. Sci. 3: 220–223.
  4. ↑ Franzen, M. (1999) Mertensiella caucasica (Waga, 1876) – Kaukasus-Salamander. Handbuch der Reptilien und Amphibien Europas. Band 4/1. Schwanzlurche (Urodela). Grossenbacher, K.G. and Thiesmeier, B. (eds.) 1:329–366. Aula Verlag. Wiesbaden
  5. ↑ Tarkhnishvili, D.N. and Gokhelashvili, R.K. (1999). "The amphibians of the Caucasus". Advances in Amphibian Research in the Former Soviet Union 4: 1–229.
  6. ↑ Georgia's Biodiversity Database: Mertensiella caucasica. Biodiversity-georgia.net. Retrieved on 2013-01-03.
  7. 1 2 Tarkhnishvili D, Kaya U. (2009) Status and Conservation of the Caucasian Salamander (Mertensiella caucasica). pp. 157–165 In: Zazanashvili, N., Mallon, D. (eds), Status and Protection Of Globally Threatened Species In The Caucasus.
  8. 1 2 Schultschik, G. (1994). "Zur Fortpflanzungbiologie von Mertensiella caucasica (Waga, 1876) (Urodela: Salamandridae)". Abh. Ber. Naturk. 17: 163–175.
  9. 1 2 Tarkhnishvili, D.N. and Serbinova, I.A. (1993). "The ecology of the Caucasian salamander (Mertensiella caucasica Waga) in a local population" (PDF). Asiatic Herpetological Research 5: 147–165.
  10. ↑ Ekvtimishvili, Z.S. (1948). "Feeding of Caucasian salamander (Mertensiella caucasica Waga)". Proc. Inst. Zool. Of Georgian Acad. Sci. 8: 239–245.
  11. ↑ Kuzmin, SL (1992). "Feeding ecology of the Caucasian Salamander (Mertensiella caucasica), with comments on life history". Asiatic Herpetol. Res. 4: 123–131.
  12. ↑ Wolterstorff, W. (1936). "Beitrage zur Kenntnis des Kaukasussalamanders (Mertensiella caucasica Waga)". Zoologischer Anzeiger 116 (1–2): 1–13.
  13. ↑ Tarkhnishvili, D. N. and Gokhelashvili, R. K. (1994). "Preliminary data of the age structure of a Mertensiella caucasica population". Mertensiella 4: 327–334.
  14. ↑ Veith, Michael and Steinfartz, Sebastian (2004). "When non-monophyly results in taxonomic consequences—the case of Mertensiella within the Salamandridae (Amphibia: Urodela)" (PDF). Salamandra 40: 67–80.
  15. ↑ Veith, M., Steinfartz, S., Zardoya, R., Seitz, A., and Meyer, A. (1998). "A molecular phylogeny of 'true' salamanders (family Salamandridae)and the evolution of terrestriality of reproductive modes". J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res. 36: 7–16. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0469.1998.tb00774.x.
  16. ↑ Borja Sanchiz, F. and Mlynarski, M. (1979). "Pliocene salamandrids (Amphibia, Caudata) from Poland". Acta Zoologica Cracov 24 (4): 175–188.
  17. ↑ Tarkhnishvili, D.N., Thorpe, R.S. & Arntzen, J.W. (2000). "Pre-Pleistocene refugia and differentiation between populations of the Caucasian salamander (Mertensiella caucasica)" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 14 (3): 414–422. doi:10.1006/mpev.1999.0718. PMID 10712846.
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