How would you classify this species?

North-west Italian Cave Salamander, French Cave Salamander, and Strinati’s Cave Salamander are all the common names referring to the species, Speleomantes strinatii (IUCN Red List of Threaten Species 2014; Reptiles & amplibiens de France 2004).  The genus name for this species has two meanings.  The first part of Speleomantes means “cave,” and the second part, “mantes” comes from the god from hell, Mantus (Reptiles & amplibiens de France 2004).


                                        Photographed by Gert Jan Verspui in April 2012
                                     in Liguria, Italy.  This is a photo of Speleomantes strinatii.

Classification:  

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia  
Phylum: Chordata  
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Plethodontidae  
Genus: Speleomantes  
Species: strinatii    


(IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2014). 

Why is the North-west Italian Cave Salamander classified in these categories?


Domain: Eukarya  

All organisms in this domain have a true nucleus. These organisms can range from unicellular to multicellular (Campbell et al. 2008).  The Sweet Potato, the Cranberry, and the Mute Swan are also in this domain.  There are informative websites on all of these organisms from the database, MultipleOrganisms.net.  


Kingdom: Animalia  

All animals are considered to be multicellular. They are all heterotrophic eukaryotes. Every animal has tissues that develop to form embryonic layers.  Animals can be classified further with specific synapomorphic traits such as, body plan symmetry, organization of tissues and protostome verse deuterostome development (Campbell et al. 2008).  MultipleOrganisms.net has many informative websites on species in this same kingdom such as the American Alligator,  the Red Rock Crab, and the Giant Pacific Octopus.


Phylum: Chordata  

All chordates have a notochord, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, pharyngeal slits and a muscular postanal tail (Campbell et al. 2008).  All chordates are also bilaterally symmetrical (Campbell et al. 2008).  Also in this phylum are the Timber Rattlesnake and the American Bullfrog.
 

Class: Amphibia


There are three major clades that consist among living amphibians. These clades are caecilians, salamanders and frogs (Zug et al. 2001).  Among the Amphibia, there are only around 550 species of urodeles.  Most land living salamanders walk with a side-to-side motion while bending their bodies. This trait was inherited by early tetrapods living in terrestrial environments (Campbell et al. 2008).

Order: Caudata

 Salamanders are labeled with a node based name, Caudata.  This means the organism has a tail.  It is common for these organisms to have cylindrical bodies, long tails and well developed limbs.  Some salamanders have limbs that a greatly reduced or even lack hind limbs. Salamanders, in general, can live in many different places such as aquatic environments, terrestrial environments, and forest canopies (Zug et al. 2001).

 
 Family: Plethodontidae  

Plethodontidae is the largest and most diverse family of salamanders (Carroll 2009).  All salamanders in Plethodeontidae, are lungless; therefore, Plethodeontids breathe through their moist skin during the process of cutaneous gas exchange (Carroll 2009).  This trait evolved in order to adapt to environments of cold, highly oxygenated habitats (Carroll 2009).  An advantage of this trait is that lung-less salamanders are able to feed on the bottom of streams (Carroll 2009). 

  Figure 1. Phylogenic tree including the order, superfamily, and family of Speleomantes Strinatii (Halliday and Alder 1986). The bolded words represent the classification of Speleomantes strinatii.  Modified by Mary Purdy.

The phylogenetic tree above shows the relationships between the different families in the superfamilies of Crytobranchoidea, Salamandroidae, and Sirenoidae.  There are six families of Salamandroidae, which includes the family of Speleomantes strinatii.

 

Genus: Speleomantes

Speleomantes strinatii is one of the seven species in the genus, Speleomantes (Carranza et al. 2007).  Species in this genus can be found in southeastern France, northern and central Italy, and Sardinia, a Mediterranean island (Carranza et al. 2007).

       

Figure 2. Phylogenic tree including the seven species in the genus, Speleomantes (Carranza et al. 2007).  The scientific name for the North-west Italian Cave Salamander is bolded.  Modified by Mary Purdy.  

There are only seven cave salamanders documented that are living in Europe.  These species all share a common ancestor from the genus, Hydromantes, which is located in California (Carranza et al. 2007). 

Photographed by Gert Jan Verspui in April 2012 in Liguria, Italy.  This is a photo of two Speleomantes italicus.  If you would like to look at more pictures of organisms in the genus, Speleomantes, or other amphibians, you can visit Gert Jan Verspui's Website here.

Species: strinatii

This species was dedicated to Pierre Strinati, hence the name of the species (Reptiles & amplibiens de France 2004).

Interested in learning more?  Read about where in the world Speleomantes strinatii lives!

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