A cave salamander is a type of

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

that primarily or exclusively inhabits

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

s, a group that includes several species. Some of these animals have developed special, even extreme, adaptations to their subterranean environments. Some species have only rudimentary (or even absent) eyes (''blind salamanders''). Others lack pigmentation, rendering them a pale yellowish or pinkish color (e.g., '' Eurycea rathbuni''). With the notable exception of the olm (''Proteus anguinus''), all "cave salamanders" are members of the family

Plethodontidae Plethodontidae, or lungless salamanders, are a family of salamanders. With over 500 species, lungless salamanders are by far the largest family of salamanders in terms of their diversity. Most species are native to the Western Hemisphere, from B ...

("lungless salamanders"). Almost all of them are paedomorphic and therefore never undergo metamorphosis, but it is not clear if this happened before or after they adapted to an existence in caves, as some species that don't live in caves are also paedomorphic.Streambed microstructure predicts evolution of development and life history mode in the plethodontid salamander Eurycea tynerensis
/ref>

History

The first dedicated scientific study of a cave animal was focused upon a cave salamander, '' Proteus anguinus''. It was originally identified as a "dragon's larva" by

Johann Weikhard von Valvasor Johann Weikhard Freiherr von Valvasor or Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor (, ) or simply Valvasor (baptised on 28 May 1641 – September or October 1693) was a natural historian and polymath from Carniola, present-day Slovenia, and a Li ...

in 1689. Later, the Austrian naturalist Joseph Nicolaus Lorenz described it scientifically in 1768. Another early scientific description of a cave salamander was undertaken by

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; 22 October 178318 September 1840) was a French early 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ult ...

in 1822 while he was a professor of botany and natural history at Transylvania University in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

. The species he described was known to the locals as a "cave puppet" and is now known to be '' Eurycea lucifuga''. His discovery was not surprising at the time because ''E. lucifuga'' lives near the entrance of caves, making an in-depth exploration unnecessary. Additionally, ''E. lucifuga'' is neither blind nor depigmented.

List of cave salamanders

*The following species have commonly been termed "the cave salamander" without any additional modifier or adjective: **The olm (''Proteus anguinus'', or proteus), the first discovered example, a blind salamander endemic to caves of the Balkan peninsula **The spotted-tail cave salamander ('' Eurycea lucifuga''), a lungless salamander endemic to caves of the eastern United States *'' Eurycea'' (of North America) and '' Speleomantes'' (of Italy and France) are two

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

of lungless salamanders with so many individual species termed "cave salamanders" that the entire group is sometimes so designated. *Individual species of "cave salamander" (in some cases "blind salamander"), usually designated with an additional modifier or adjective in their common name, include the following lungless salamanders: **'' Eurycea lucifuga'', often simply known as the cave salamander, alternately the spotted-tail salamander **'' Eurycea rathbuni'', the Texas cave salamander, or Texas blind salamander (formerly, ''Typhlomolge rathbuni'') **'' Eurycea tridentifera'', the Honey Creek Cave blind salamander, or Comal blind salamander **'' Eurycea braggi'', the southern grotto salamander (formerly ''Typhlotriton braggi'') **'' Eurycea nerea'', the northern grotto salamander (formerly ''Typhlotriton nereus'') **'' Eurycea spelaea'', the western grotto salamander or Ozark blind salamander (formerly, ''Typhlotriton speleus'') **'' Speleomantes ambrosii'', Ambrosi's cave salamander, or French cave salamander, or Spezia cave salamander **'' Speleomantes imperialis'', imperial cave salamander, or scented cave salamander **'' Speleomantes supramontis'', the Supramonte cave salamander **'' Speleomantes italicus'', the Italian cave salamander **'' Speleomantes flavus'', the Monte Albo cave salamander, or Stefani's salamander **'' Speleomantes strinatii'', Strinati's cave salamander **'' Speleomantes sarrabusensis'', Sarrabus' cave salamander **'' Gyrinophilus palleucus'', the Tennessee cave salamander ***'' G. p. necturoides'', the Big Mouth Cave salamander **'' Gyrinophilus gulolineatus'', the Berry Cave salamander **'' Gyrinophilus subterraneus'', West Virginia spring salamander **'' Atylodes genei'', the brown cave salamander, or Gene's cave salamander, Sardinian cave salamander, or simply Sardinian salamander **'' Chiropterotriton mosaueri'', the cave splayfoot salamander **'' Haideotriton wallacei'', the Georgia blind salamander (''Haideotriton'' is considered synonymous with '' Eurycea'' by some experts.) **'' Plethodon dixi'', the Dixie Caverns salamander

References

{{reflist * Amphibian common names

History

List of cave salamanders

See also

References