Salado Salamander (Eurycea chisholmensis)
Description: A neotenic species of salamander that has a pinkish-grey body with yellow speckles on its dorsum. It has external gills which are not particularly bushy. Its legs are well-developed with long toes, and it has a wide, flat head with noticeable eyes.
Habitat: This completely aquatic salamander is restricted to the immediate vicinity of spring outflows, under rocks and in gravel substrate.
Range: It has been found only from a few springs that feed Salado Creek in Bell County, Texas. These springs were important along the historical Chisholm Trail, from which the name of the species is derived.
Found in these States:
TX
Diet: The adult salamanders feed on aquatic invertebrates, including seed shrimp, copepods, and amphipods, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Reproduction: Breeding migration is not likely to occur. Egg deposition sites are unknown; some other spring-dwelling species of central Texas Eurycea are thought to deposit eggs in gravel substrates. Salado salamanders are paedomorphic, and natural metamorphosis is unknown.
Status: Listed as Endangered due to its extent of occurrence (EOO) of 900 km2, because it is estimated to occur in two threat-defined locations, and there is ongoing decline in the extent and quality of the species' aquatic habitat in Texas.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Amphibia - (Amphibians)
»» Order: Caudata - Salamanders
»» Family: Plethodontidae - Lungless Salamanders
»» Genus: Eurycea
»» Species: Eurycea chisholmensis - Salado Salamander
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Salado Springs salamander", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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