Taxonomic status of male salamanders of the Ambystoma jeffersonianum complex from an Ontario population, with the first record of the Jefferson salamander, A. jeffersonianum (Green), from Canada
- 1 August 1976
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Canadian Science Publishing in Canadian Journal of Zoology
- Vol. 54 (8) , 1270-1276
- https://doi.org/10.1139/z76-144
Abstract
Nine morphological criteria were used to determine the taxonomic status of the male salamanders of the Ambystoma jeffersonianum complex from a population near Streetsville, Toronto Township, Peel County, Ontario: (a) snout–vent length; (b) ratio of tail length to snout–vent length; (c) internarial width; (d) extent of separation or overlap of the toes of adpressed limbs; (e) total length; (f) ratio of tail length to total length; (g) ratio of internarial width to snout–vent length; (h) colouration of dorsal, lateral, and ventral body surfaces; and, (i) extent and distribution of the bluish spotting. The results indicate that all of these males resemble A. jeffersonianum or A. platineum rather than A. latérale. Since A. platineum males occur very rarely in nature, these Streetsville individuals are logically assigned to A. jeffersonianum. This represents the first record of this species from Canada. Based upon this new distributional datum of A. jeffersonianum and of the two Diploid species from the literature, we suggest that these triploid species may have originated in post-Wisconsin times and subsequently dispersed northward.This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- SERUM PROTEINS OF SALAMANDERS OF THE AMBYSTOMA JEFFERSONIANUM COMPLEX, AND THE ORIGIN OF THE TRIPLOID SPECIES OF THIS GROUPEvolution, 1967
- Relations of the Diploid and Triploid Species of the Ambystoma jeffersonianum Complex (Amphibia, Caudata)Ichthyology & Herpetology, 1964
- An Analysis of Post-Wisconsin Biogeography of the Prairie Peninsula Region Based on Distributional Phenomena Among Terrestrial Vertebrate PopulationsEcology, 1957