Chiropterotriton Taylor, 1944

Common Names

Splayfoot Salamanders (Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 11; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 30).

Flat-footed Salamanders (Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 30).

Distribution

West-central Tamaulipas in the north to the mountains of northern Oaxaca in the south, Mexico.

Comment

Species formerly placed in the Chiropterotriton beta group (see Wake and Lynch, 1976, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 25: 1-65) were transferred to Dendrotriton and Nototriton by Wake and Elias, 1983, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 345: 11. Darda, 1994, Herpetologica, 50: 164-187, discussed taxonomy, phylogenetics, species groups, and the large number of unnamed species (these detailed by Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 808, 809-810, 810, and provided an accounts summarizing their systematics, life history, population status, and distribution). The northern group in Darda's arrangement is paraphyletic with respect to the southern group; these groupings were followed by Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 289–296, who provide brief accounts, photographs, and maps for the species. See also Wake and Lynch, 1976, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 25: 1-65, who also discussed phylogeny within the group. Parra-Olea, 2003, Canad. J. Zool., 81: 2048-2060, discussed phylogeny in the group and noted 7 unnamed (at that time) species. Wiens, Parra-Olea, García-París, and Wake, 2007, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B, Biol. Sci., 274: 918-928, provided a placement of Chiropterotriton and a phylogeny of the species. In the tribe Bolitoglossini of Vieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 633. Campbell, Streicher, Cox, and Brodie, 2014, S. Am. J. Herpetol.: 228–234, provided a useful table of updated comparative morphology of the species. Parra-Olea, García-Castillo, Rovito, Maisano, Hanken, and Wake, 2020, PeerJ, 8(e8800): 1–71, provided a partial revision, named five species, and provided a phylogenetic hypothesis of the species.  

Contained taxa (23 sp.):

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