Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Paradactylodon mustersi (Smith, 1940)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Hynobiidae > Subfamily: Hynobiinae > Genus: Paradactylodon > Species: Paradactylodon mustersi

Batrachuperus mustersi Smith, 1940, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 11, 5: 382. Holotype: BMNH 1940.3.1.1, by original designation, now renumbered BMNH 1946.9.6.59 (originally 1940.3.11) according to Brame and Gorham, 1972, Checklist Living & Fossil Salamand. World (Unpubl. MS): 2, and museum records. Type locality: "mountain streams of the Paghman Range, above Paghman [= 17 mi. W Kabul], at between 9000 and 10,000 feet altitude", Afghanistan.

Paradactylodon mustersi — Zhang, Chen, Zhou, Liu, Wang, Papenfuss, Wake, and Qu, 2006, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103: 7364; Zheng, Peng, Kuro-o, and Zeng, 2011, Mol. Biol. Evol., 28: 2521–2535.

Afghanodon mustersi — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161; Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 407.

English Names

Paghman Mountain Salamander (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 28).

Afghanistan Mountain Salamander (Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 126).

Afghan Mountan Salamander (Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 44).

Distribution

Hindu Kush mountain range with records from only a few localities from five central-eastern Afghan provinces (Kabul, Ghazni, Panjsheer, Parwan, and Wardak), 2750–3050 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Afghanistan

Endemic: Afghanistan

Comment

See Mertens, 1970, Aquar. Terrar. Z., 11: 346–348, Reilly, 1983, J. Herpetol., 17: 1–9, Böhme, 1982, Elaphe, 2: 33–36, Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 119–121, and Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 57–58, for accounts. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Batrachuperus mustersi) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 548.See Zheng, Peng, Kuro-o, and Zeng, 2011, Mol. Biol. Evol., 28: 2521–2535, for demonstration that Iranodon and Afghanodon are sister species and placed in Paradactylodon. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 53–54, provided a brief account, photo, and range map. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 126–128, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species, as Paradactylodon mustersi. See localities and range map for Afghanistan by Wagner, Bauer, Leviton, Wilms, and Böhme, 2016, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 63: 457–565. Ahmadzadeh, Shahrokhi, Saberi-Pirooz, Oladi, Taati, Poyarkov, and Rödder, 2020, Amphibia-Reptilia, 41: 519–534, reported on comparative morphology, molecular phylogeography, and biogeography. Böhme and Jablonski, 2022, Bonn Zool. Bull., 71: 1–7, provided a translation and discussion of Nawabi, 1965, Science, Kabul, 1965: 21–25 (in Farsi and not seen), on the life history and morphology. Ayobi, Masroor, Basit, and Jablonski, 2022, Herpetozoa, Wien, 35: 133–139, discussed the distribution and conservation status as well as providing a new record from Panjsheer Province, Afghanistan. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 44–45, provided a detailed account (as Afghanodon mustersi), covering systematics, life history, and distribution (including a polygon map). Vaissi, Heshmatzad, and Hernandez, 2023, Amphibia-Reptilia, 44: 415–429, discussed modeled niche and susceptibility to climate change.

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To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.