THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
Loading taxon account
Retrieving account information and occurrence data...

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Carolina Mountain Dusky Salamander
Desmognathus carolinensis (Dunn, 1916)
DEZ-moh-NAY-thus — kair-oh-lin-EN-sis

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

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles); click a marker to view record details.
Occurrences:; 8,190 Total; 7,748 Museum; 442 Other
The locality database contains 8,049,983 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Click a marker to display its metadata. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. - (Version: 2023.08.31.15.51.21)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: North Carolina Tennessee

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for the Carolinas in the southeastern U.S.
Desmognathus — Greek desmos = “ligament” + gnathos = “jaw”
carolinensis — Latinized toponym meaning “of Carolina” — found in or near the Carolinas.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Blue Ridge Mountain Salamander (Desmognathus ochrophaeus carolinensis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1916 Dunn, Emmert R. Two new salamanders of the genus Desmognathus. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 29:73–76
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
2000 White, Matthew M., Fer Vallejo, and Stephen R. Reilly. Fine-scale genetic differentiation in the Carolina Mountain Dusky Salamander, Desmognathus carolinensis. Journal of Herpetology 34(2):298-302
2008 Tilley, Stephen G., Renee L. Eriksen, and Laura A. Katz. Systematics of dusky salamanders, Desmognathus (Caudata: Plethodontidae), in the mountain and Piedmont regions of Virginia and North Carolina, USA. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 152:115-130
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letter 13:1378-1389

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 10 August 2026 03:06 CT