Salamander versus newt?

[kclinton]

My friend asked me how to tell a salamander and a newt apart. What is the diff. I felt really silly. So any help would be great. Thanks

 

[Jennewt]

It's in the FAQ:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/faq/faq.shtml
Scientific Questions section.

Maybe some other folks have other details to add.

 

[rigsby]

to add to that, a lot of newts develop adornments when breeding like crests and/or the bluish white stripe down the tail. One which seems to break all the newt/sal rules is T shanjing or mandarin newt, with mine the courtship took place on land, the males never develop any breeding colours and the females even laid the eggs on land.

 

[lims]

...so the mandarin tadpoles were born on land? found their way to water? Didn't know that was possible, wow..

 

[rigsby]

well actually i took the eggs out and hatched them in water, the eggs were laid on damp moss in the tank and i doubt most would have found their way to water.

 

[grunsven]

These names are probably quite old and originate from a time when less species were known in the english language. In Northern Europe you have Triturus s.l. and Salamandra, these two are clearly different and calling one group newt and the other salamander doesn't seem such a weird idea. Later more species needed names and everything became messy.
You see this in a lot of groups.