Some Confusion

[rob]

Hey all,

I've been doing my reading about Ambystomatidae and I have a few questions.

some places have Ambystoma and Rhyacosiredon as the genera in the Ambystomatidae. My field guid says Ambystoma, Dicamptodon and Rhyacotriton as the genera in the Ambystomatidae family, yet without any mention of Rhyascosiredon. To even add to the confusion, a third source repeats the same as the first, with the Ambystoma and Rhyacosirdeon, and mentions that Dicamptodon and Rhyacotriton, although having their own families (Dicamptodontidae and Rhyacotritonidae), may eventually be added to the Ambystoma, as well as the Rhyacotriton, by some authors.

So, the question is what genera belong to the Ambystomatidae?

 

[nate]

Rhyacosiredon has been "officially" changed to Ambystoma and the genera Dicamptodon and Rhyacotriton were given their own families.

The currently accepted list of species within Ambystomatidae can be found here:

http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/amphib_query?rel-genus=like&upper-genus=1&upper-species=1&upper-common_name=1&rel-species=like&rel-common_name=like&rel-family=equals&rel-order=equals&rel-isocc=like&max=200&orderbyaw=Family&where-genus=Ambystoma&where-species=&where-common_name=&where-family=any&where-order=any&where-isocc=any

 

[rob]

Thanks Nate, that was helpful! Very good site.

Rob