Paradactylodon persicus (Eiselt and Steiner, 1970)

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

Batrachuperus persicus Eiselt and Steiner, 1970, Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 74: 78. Holotype: NHMW 19435: 4, by original designation. Type locality: "Talysch-Gebirge bei Assalem, Prov. Ghilan, Iran, kleiner Bach, ca. 800 m. ü.d.M." (= Talysch Mountains near Assalem, Province of Ghilan, Iran, small creek about 800 meters elevation).

Batrachuperus gorganensis Clergue-Gazeau and Thorn, 1979 "1978", Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Toulouse, 114: 455. Holotype: MNHNP 1978.1982, by original designation. Type locality: "La grotte . . . se situe près de la route reliant les villes de Ali-Abad et de Gorgan (altitude: 400 m au-dessus du niveau de la Caspeinne) . . . . au fond de la grotte, au bord de l'eau et sur un banc d'argile à 200 m de l'entrée . . . . grotte avec resurgence entre Gorgan et Ali-Abad", Iran. = At the edge of a cavernous stream on a clay bank 200 m inside the entrance of a cave, situated between the village of Gorgan and Ali-Abad, Elburz Mountain Range of north-central Iran, near the southeast shore of the Caspian Sea and with an elevation of 400 m above its level. Synonymy suggested by Stöck, 1999, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 50: 217–241; synonymy formalized by  Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161,; Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 54; Stöck, Fakharzadeh, Kuhl, Rozenblut‐Kościsty, Leinweber, Patel, Ebrahimi, Voitel, Schmidtler, Kami, Ogielska, and Förster, 2019, Genes, 10(4, 306): 1; Ahmadzadeh, Shahrokhi, Saberi-Pirooz, Oladi, Taati, Poyarkov, and Rödder, 2020, Amphibia-Reptilia, 41: 519–534. 

Paradactylodon gorganensis — Risch, 1984, Alytes, 3: 44; Zhang, Chen, Zhou, Liu, Wang, Papenfuss, Wake, and Qu, 2006, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103: 7364.

Batrachuperus gorganensis — Reilly, 1987, Amphibia-Reptilia, 8: 283–284.

Paradactylodon persicus — Zhang, Chen, Zhou, Liu, Wang, Papenfuss, Wake, and Qu, 2006, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103: 7364.

Iranodon persicus persicus — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161.  

Iranodon persicus gorganensis — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161; Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 54.  

Iranodon persicus — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 407. 

Iranodon gorganensis — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 407. 

Common Names

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

Persian Brook Salamander (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 20; Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 77).

Persian Mountain Salamander (Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 637).

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

Persian Cave Salamander (Paradactylodon gorganensis:Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 80).

Gorgan Brook Salamander (Paradactylodon gorganensis: Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 267).

Distribution

Hyrcanian forests of the Talysh and Alburz mountains, 310–1500 m, Gilan, Golestan, Ardabil, and Mazandaran provinces, Iran. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Iran

Endemic: Iran

Comment

For accounts see Steiner, 1973, Salamandra, 9: 1–6; Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 77–80; Kami, 1999, Zool. Middle East, 19: 37–42; Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 121–122; and Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 58. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status (as Batrachuperus persicus) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 637. Kami and Vakilpoure, 1996, Herpetol. Rev., 27: 147, provided a number of specific localities for Iran. Kami, 2004, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 10: 182–190, reported on life history. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 54, provided a brief account, photo, and range map. Ahmadzadeh and Kami, 2009, Iranian J. Anim. Biosyst., 5: 9–15, reported on conservation status of Batrachuperus persicus and noted that Batrachuperus gorganensis had been suggested to be the eastern end of geographic variation and conspecific, but noted that taxonomy of such isolated populations are inherently controversial and this specific instance requires additional study. Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 257–290, reported on distribution and conservation status in Iran. Stöck, 1999, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 50: 217–241, suggested that Batrachuperus gorganensis might be conspecific with Batrachuperus persicus. Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 80-83; and Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 122–124, provided accounts of nominal Batrachuperus gorganensis. Ebrahimi, Kami, and Stöck, 2004, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 10: 168–175, reported on egg deposition and larval morphology of nominal Batrachuperus gorganensis. Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161, regarded Iranodon gorganensis as a subspecies of Iranodon persicus without comment. See comment under Iranodon persicus. See map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Batrachuperus gorganensis)  Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 547. Ebrahimi, Kami, and Stöck, 2004, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 10: 168–175, reported on egg deposition and larval morphology. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 125–126, 128–130 (as both Paradactylodon persicus and Paradactylodon gorganensis), reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 257–290, reported on distribution and conservation status in Iran. Stöck, Fakharzadeh, Kuhl, Rozenblut‐Kościsty, Leinweber, Patel, Ebrahimi, Voitel, Schmidtler, Kami, Ogielska, and Förster, 2019, Genes, 10(4, 306): 1–15, discussed the phylogeographics of the species. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 190, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph. Ahmadzadeh, Shahrokhi, Saberi-Pirooz, Oladi, Taati, Poyarkov, and Rödder, 2020, Amphibia-Reptilia, 41: 519–534, reported on comparative morphology, molecular phylogeography, biogeography, and habitat. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 45–47, provided a detailed account (as Iranodon persicus), covering systematics, life history, and distribution (including a polygon map). Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Niamir, 2023, Zootaxa, 5279: 1–112, provided for Iran an identification key including this species, photographs, habitat and conservation threats, a review of the literature, discussion of nomenclature and systematics, as well as dot and modeled distribution maps. Vaissi, Heshmatzad, and Hernandez, 2023, Amphibia-Reptilia, 44: 415–429, discussed modeled niche divergence among populations of Paradactylodon and confirmed the status of the two subspecies of Paradactylodon persicus. 

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