The coast with the most?

[roger]

I just picked up a field guide of the U.S. Atlantic Coast for our weekly woodland excursions. There is a small section on the common salamander species of this region and it is noted that the eastern United States has the most caudate species on the planet. The book says more than 50 species. Can anyone confirm this? In my area of New York there are eastern newts, redbacks, duskies, northern two lines, yellow spotted, and blue spotted (these are the ones that I have found personally). Of course the eastern U.S. is a huge territory so I guess there is room for over 50 species.

 

[TJ]

I dunno for sure but I would think that California has the most species if you were to go by state. Check out this list:

http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/salamanders.html

Then again, there is huge species diversity in the Appalachians and Ozarks, though they're a bit far inland to be included in a field guide to salamanders of the Atlantic Coast...

 

[edward]

According to Patterns of Distribution of Amphibians, A Global Perspective edited by Duellman, The Pacific-Cascade-Sierra Nevada Mountain System has 35 species of salamanders compared to the Atlantic Coastal Plain which has 46 species of salamanders while the Appalachian Highlands have 74 species of salamanders. (Note these are species and do not include subspecies nor recently described species). If the numbers were broken into East Coast versus West Coast I suspect there would be even greater difference between the numbers.

Ed