Animal researchers have discovered a new species in the Tar Heel Province. The discovery further cementing NC's reputation as home to the nation's largest variety of salamanders.
A spotted, crimson-orange amphibian that lives in the springs and blackwater rivers of the Sandhills area is the Carolina Sandhills Salamander.
Its scale is smaller on average compared to related species, looking more like a cross between a frog and a lizard. The body of a salamander is unlike reptiles, slippery, and smooth.
According to a news release by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, this discovery raises the state's count of salamander species from 63 to 64.
"It's a real neat critter," Alvin Braswell, a now-retired researcher from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences who helped make the discovery, said in the release.
Researchers have been mistaking the Carolina Sandhills Salamander for something else for 50 years.
The first known specimen of the critter was collected in 1969 by Braswell.
He had assumed back then that it was just a strange-looking Southern Two-Lined Salamander, an amphibian with a yellowish-brown color that was equally dotted. He said, "Whoa, perhaps there's something to this the release notes after he noticed more "weird individuals" of the salamander genus in the '70s.
He started the process of describing the new animal species in the '80s, but after his responsibilities, as assistant curator became too burdensome, the release says, he stopped working on it. Braswell then handed the baton over to Bryan Stuart, who entered the museum in 2008 as a reptile and amphibian research curator.
It was not until the museum had access to a new technology that the release states that Stuart could complete Braswell's project.
In 2013, the National Science Foundation awarded Stuart an award that enabled him to use a next-generation DNA sequencer.
"With that machine, we were able to sequence a sufficiently large number of genes to test the distinct species status of the Carolina Sandhills Salamander," said Stuart, the lead author on the paper revealing the discovery.
What makes this a rare salamander?
According to Braswell, part of the reason why the salamander is special is that its range is limited to the Sandhills region.
The NC Sandhills is a tiny patch of what remains of the Longleaf Pine habitat, a vast area that the release states once spanned from southeast Virginia to south Florida. According to the Sandhills Ecological Institute, about 3 percent of the ecosystem remains after decades of deforestation and growth.
The scientific name of the salamander, Eurycea arenicola, mirrors its origin. In Latin, Arenicola translates into "dweller of a sandy place."
In Harnett, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond, Robeson, and Scotland counties, the release reports, researchers discovered specimens.
Jeff Beane, the museum's collection manager for amphibians and lizards, said in the news release that almost every recognized specimen of the new species is housed in their collection, with just a handful of individuals at a few other museums.
He noted no records from South Carolina just yet. However, Beane said they have a record in North Carolina just two miles from the state line.
Over the coming years, scientists could track down even more salamanders.
The study paper on the Carolina Sandhills Salamander indicates that other unidentified species, including those in North Carolina, are awaiting classification, Stuart said.
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