The Korean crevice salamander (''Karsenia koreana'') is a species of
lungless salamander
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 ...
. It dwells under rocks in
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
forest areas of the
Korean peninsula
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...
.
[ It was discovered by Stephen J. Karsen, an American science teacher working in ]Daejeon
Daejeon (; ) is South Korea's list of cities in South Korea, fifth-largest metropolis, with a population of nearly 1.5 million. Located in a central lowland valley between the Sobaek Mountains and the Geum River, the city is known both as a ...
, South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
, in 2003,2005
2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
.[ Although plethodontid salamanders comprise seventy percent of salamander species worldwide, ''Karsenia koreana'' is the first member of this taxon known from Asia. Like other plethodontids, it lacks lungs and breathes through its moist skin.][ It is the only species in the genus ''Karsenia''.]
Systematics and biogeography
Cladistic
Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...
analysis using Bayesian analysis
Thomas Bayes ( ; c. 1701 – 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher, and Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elde ...
of molecular data places ''Karsenia koreana'' as sister group
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and ...
to the clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...
containing ''Aneides
Climbing salamanders is the common name for plethodontid (lungless) salamanders of the genus ''Aneides''. It contains 10 species native to North America, distributed between the Pacific Coast (7 species), Sacramento Mountains (1 species), and A ...
'' and the desmognathine salamanders. This implies that plethodontid salamanders may have had a worldwide range 60 to 100 million years ago. As the global climate cooled, New World taxa thrived while Old World populations declined. Other plants and animals currently found in Asia and North America share close relationships, showing a similar pattern of biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities o ...
.[
]
Description
Males measure and females in snout–vent length. The habitus is moderately robust. The head is relatively broad. The eyes are small and moderately protuberant. There are 14–15 costal groove
The rib cage or thoracic cage is an endoskeletal enclosure in the thorax of most vertebrates that comprises the ribs, vertebral column and sternum, which protect the vital organs of the thoracic cavity, such as the heart, lungs and great vessels ...
s. The tail is round basally but becomes in some individuals laterally compressed towards its tip. Complete tail (i.e., non-regenerated) is about as long as the snout–vent length. The species is darkly pigmented. There is a broad dorsal stripe of variable color (reddish to yellowish brown, tan, or dark brown) and distinctness (prominent and bright to obscure). The lateral surfaces are uniformly dark but have an obscure overlay of small, whitish speckles. The ventral surfaces are pale with moderately large, whitish flecks that are absent along the midline.[
]
Habitat and conservation
The species occurs in damp talus slopes and rockslides of limestone in young forests dominated by ''Pinus densiflora
''Pinus densiflora'', also called the Japanese red pine, the Japanese pine, or Korean red pine, is a species of pine tree native to East Asia and Siberia. In China, the plant is known as 赤松 (pinyin: chì sōng, literally "red pine").
Distrib ...
'' and ''Quercus mongolica
''Quercus mongolica'', commonly known as Mongolian oak, is a species of oak native to Japan, China, Korea, Mongolia, and Siberia. The species can grow to be tall.
The flavono-ellagitannins mongolicin A and B can be found in ''Quercus mongo ...
'', mostly under small stones.[ Although the species is considered locally common, and reasonably widespread (as of 2006, it was known from more than 20 sites),]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1325600, KNSL=yes
Plethodontidae
Endemic fauna of Korea
Amphibians of Korea
Amphibians described in 2005
Taxa named by David B. Wake