The torrent salamanders or Cascade salamanders are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

of salamanders (Rhyacotritonidae) with only one genus, ''Rhyacotriton''. The torrent salamanders are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to the United States in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

(including northwestern California).

Species

The genus ''Rhyacotriton'' includes four species: *

Cascade torrent salamander The Cascade torrent salamander (''Rhyacotriton cascadae'') is a species of salamander in the family Rhyacotritonidae. It is endemic to the Pacific Northwest in the United States where it is found from Skamania County in Washington south to Lan ...

(''R. cascadae'') *

Columbia torrent salamander The Columbia torrent salamander (''Rhyacotriton kezeri'') is a species of salamander in the family Rhyacotritonidae, endemic to the Pacific Northwest in the United States. It is found in the coastal areas of Washington to northwestern Oregon. I ...

(''R. kezeri'') *

Olympic torrent salamander The Olympic torrent salamander (''Rhyacotriton olympicus'') is a species of salamander in the family Rhyacotritonidae. This is a small salamander (up to 10 cm total length) that lives in clear, cold, mountain streams. It is medium to dark b ...

(''R. olympicus'') *

Southern torrent salamander The southern torrent salamander (''Rhyacotriton variegatus'') is a member of the salamander family Rhyacotritonidae. This species of torrent salamander is found the farthest south in the region. It is a small salamander endemic to the Pacific No ...

(''R. variegatus'')

Taxonomy

Originally the genus ''Rhyacotriton'' was placed in the family

Ambystomatidae Ambystomatidae is a family of salamanders belonging to the order Caudata in the class Amphibia. It contains two genera, ''Ambystoma'' (the mole salamanders) and ''Dicamptodon'' (the Pacific giant salamanders). ''Ambystoma'' contains 32 specie ...

, later in the family

Dicamptodontidae The Pacific giant salamanders (frequently stylized as Giant Pacific Salamanders or GPS) are members of the genus ''Dicamptodon''. They are large salamanders endemic to the Pacific Northwest in North America. They are included in the family Ambys ...

, and finally in 1992 it was placed into a family of its own. At the same time the only species ''Rhyacotriton olympicus'' was split into four species due to genetic analysis.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1187581 Taxa named by Emmett Reid Dunn