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Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  
Apalachicola Dusky Salamander
Desmognathus apalachicolae Means and Karlin, 1989
DEZ-moh-NAY-thus — ap-uh-latch-ih-KOH-lee
Taxon Links
iNaturalist
Amphibian Species of the World
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
NatureServe
GenBank
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 2,335 Total; 2,200 Museum; 135 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.08.31.15.48.41)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Florida Georgia

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for a southeastern U.S. river system.
Desmognathus — Greek desmos = “ligament” + gnathos = “jaw” — refers to characteristic jaw ligaments.
apalachicolae — Latinized toponym from the Apalachicola River, Florida, itself from a Native American name.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.


Selected References:
1989 Means, D. Bruce, and A. A. Karlin. A new species of Desmognathus from the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain. Herpetologica 45:37–46
1993 Means, D. Bruce. Desmognathus apalachicolae. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (556):1-2
1993 Arnold, Steven J., Nancy L. Reagan, and Paul A. Verrell. Reproductive isolation and speciation in plethodontid salamanders. Herpetologica 49(2):216-228
1996 Titus, Tom A. and Allan Larson. Molecular phylogenetics of Desmognathine salamanders (Caudata: Plethodontidae): A reevaluation of evolution in ecology, life history, and morphology. Systematic Biology 45(4):451-472
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letter 13:1378-1389

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