Bolitoglossa

Bolitoglossa
Bolitoglossa mexicana
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Plethodontidae
Subfamily: Hemidactyliinae
Genus: Bolitoglossa
Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854
Species

c. 140, see text

Bolitoglossa is a genus of lungless salamanders, also called mushroom-tongued salamanders,[1] tropical climbing salamanders,[2] or web-footed salamanders,[3] in the family Plethodontidae.[1][4] Their range is between northern Mexico through Central America to Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, northeastern Brazil, and central Bolivia.[1] Neotropical salamanders of the Bolitoglossa make up the largest genus in the order Caudata,[5] consisting of approximately one-fifth of all known species of salamanders.[1] Adult salamanders range anywhere from 45mm to 200mm in length depending on their specific species.[6] They are notorious for their ability to project their tongue at prey items, as indicated from their name. They are also known for their webbed feet, having significantly more webbing than any other species outside their genus with the exception of the cave-dwelling Mexican bolitoglossine Chiropterotriton magnipes.[7] Although webbed feet are a common characteristic of these salamanders, only about half of the species in this genus contain webbed feet.[6]

  1. ^ a b c d Frost, Darrel R. "Bolitoglossa Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854". Amphibian Species of the World, an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  2. ^ "Tropical climbing salamanders Bolitoglossa". HerpMapper. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  3. ^ Huettmann, Falk (4 August 2015). Central American Biodiversity: Conservation, Ecology, and a Sustainable Future. Springer. p. 289. ISBN 978-1-4939-2208-6.
  4. ^ "Plethodontidae". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. 2024. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference tolweb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Alberch, Pere (1981). "Convergence and parallelism in foot morphology in the neotropical salamander genus Bolitoglossa. I. Function". Evolution. 35 (1): 84–100. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.1981.tb04861.x. JSTOR 2407944. PMID 28563463. S2CID 34178280.
  7. ^ Jaekel, M.; Wake, D. B. (2007). "Developmental processes underlying the evolution of a derived foot morphology in salamanders". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104 (51): 20437–20442. Bibcode:2007PNAS..10420437J. doi:10.1073/pnas.0710216105. PMC 2154449. PMID 18077320.