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

Ambystoma amblycephalum Taylor, 1940

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Ambystomatidae > Genus: Ambystoma > Species: Ambystoma amblycephalum

Ambystoma amblycephala Taylor, 1940 "1939", Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 26: 420. Holotype: EHT-HMS 16443, by original deisgnation; now FMNH 100104 according to Marx, 1976, Fieldiana, Zool., 69: 35. Type locality: "15 km. west of Morelia [Tacícuaro], Michoacán", Mexico.

Ambystoma amblycephalum — Smith and Taylor, 1948, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 194: 13. Justified emendation.

Ambystoma (Ambystoma) amplycephalum — Tihen, 1958, Bull. Florida State Mus., Biol. Sci., 3: 3, 35.

Ambystoma flavipiperatum Dixon, 1963, Copeia, 1963: 99. Holotype: TCWC 12779, by original designation. Type locality: "one mile north of Santa Cruz, Jalisco, Mexico, 4,900 ft altitude". Synonymy by Everson, Gray, Jones, Lawrence, Foley, Sovacool, Kratovil, Hotaling, Hime, Storfer, Parra-Olea, Percino-Daniel, Aguilar-Miguel, O'Neill, Zambrano, Shaffer, and Weisrock, 2021, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 18 (17: e2014719118). Supplementary information: 3.

Ambystoma (Heterotriton) amblycephalum — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161.

Ambystoma (Heterotriton) flavipiperatum — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161.

English Names

Blunthead Salamander (Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 8; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 26).

Blunt-headed Salamander (Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 27).

Yellow-peppered Salamander (Ambystoma flavipiperatum [no longer recognized]: Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 9; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 27; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 27).

Distribution

From 3 km south of Quila El Grande and Tapalpa, Jalisco, east through northern Michoacán, Mexico, 1995 to 2100 m elevation; see comment regarding population from Nahuatzen, Michoacán state, Mexico.

Comment

Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Mondeezembed: 84–85, provided a brief accounts (as Ambystoma flavipiperatum and Ambystoma amblycephalum), figures, and maps. See map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 543. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 97, provided brief accounts (as Ambystoma amblycephalum and Ambystoma flavipiperatum), photos, and maps. Ahumada-Carrillo, Reyna-Bustos, and Vázquez-Ruiz, 2014, Herpetol. Rev., 45: 85, provided a range extension (as Ambystoma flavipiperatum) in Jalisco, Mexico. Hernandez, Raffaëlli, Jelsch, Rosas-Espinoza, Santiago-Pérez, and Nuñez, 2019, Herpetol. Bull., London, 147: 15–21, reported (as Ambystoma flavipiperatum) on range, habitat, and conservation. Everson, Gray, Jones, Lawrence, Foley, Sovacool, Kratovil, Hotaling, Hime, Storfer, Parra-Olea, Percino-Daniel, Aguilar-Miguel, O'Neill, Zambrano, Shaffer, and Weisrock, 2021, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 18 (17: e2014719118): 1–10, included this species in their study of molecular evolution and evolution of life histories in the Ambystoma tigrinum complex. Hernandez, Dufresnes, Raffaëlli, Jelsch, Dubey, Santiago-Pérez, Rosas-Espinoza, and Nuñez, 2022, Neotropical Biodiversity, 8: 35–44, noted a population of Ambystoma, Ambystoma cf. amblycephalum, from Nahuatzen, Michoacán state, Mexico, which is most similar to Ambystoma amblycephalum in terms of morphometrics, although mtDNA analyses placs this population as the sister of Ambystoma mexicanum or sister of a part of nominal Ambystoma velasci. Basically, the systematics of central Mexican Ambystoma is some difficulty, as these authors noted. See comments under Ambystoma regarding the state of central Mexican Ambystoma. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 147–148, provided an accounts (as Ambystoma flavipiperatum and Ambystoma amblycephalum), summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). The partition is not followed here pending molecular confirmation.

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For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.