"Tylototriton hainanensis"

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Tim Johnson
Ah, but now I see it does.

According to Studies on Chinese Salamanders, Tylototriton hainanensis should be a synonym of Tylototriton asperrimus.
 
Well, Atlas of amphibians of China considers this as a species, not a subspecies of asperrimus, same for wenxianensis. We know virtually nothing about this species apart from the species description. It's great to see a photo!
 
I wonder why it retained pigments - I thougt that most amphibians faded over time in alcohol/formalin.
Chris
 
Just to elaborate, Ermi Zhao wrote in Studies on Chinese Salamanders that he concluded that T. hainanensis should be a synonym of T. asperrimus "based upon my close comparison of some types of T. hainanensis in CIB (Chengdu Institute of Biology) with specimens of T. asperrimus".
 
I'm starting to tire of the chinese "scientists"...
nono.gif
 
These are the drawings in the Atlas of amphibians of China. The animal above is hainanensis, the specimen below is said to be asperrimus.

25391.jpg


~Mark
 
Hi Chris,
Bright pigments and light colors are typically what is lost on preservation.

Ed
 
Take a look at the site... Cynops orientalis and Pachytriton brevipes are not even known to live on Hainan.
Zhao probaly only looked at the holotype/paratypes of hainanensis, maybe Fei Liang did the same. So all these things like species/subspecies/synonym are only based on a few animals. I guess Hainan still holds many caudate secrets.
 
Most of Asia still holds caudate secrets.

Chris, Ed is right. The first colors to fade in alcohol are yellows and reds. The cell organelles that hold those pigments rupture in the alcohol. in formalin they don't rupture so bad though. if this specimen was still in formalin you might be able to still see some of the orange coloring, though maybe not.

One thing for everyone to keep in mind is that localities within mainland China have had a variety of place names in the 5,000+ years of recorded time there. Sometimes I think confusion happens when a place name doesn't now refer to the place it used to. I doubt that this is the case here, but we must keep that in mind when talking about Asian localities.

Also, the trade within mainland China has been unchecked for millenia. There are quite likely things living now where they didn't a few thousand years ago. Being able to tell the species that are truly native from those that were moved around 3,000 years before Jesus is difficult, especially with all the dialects and place name changes.

Greg
 
Hmm, the first recorded history of China is from 1300BC, I think. 3300 years of history then.
The first empire was created in about 200BC.

But it is certainly cool that the chinese "empire" has stood for about 2000 years, aint any states around to challenge that.
 
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