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

Desmognathus aureatus (Martof, 1956)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Plethodontinae > Genus: Desmognathus > Species: Desmognathus aureatus

Leurognathus marmorata aureata Martof, 1956, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 575: 2. Holotype: UMMZ 111566, by original designation. Type locality: "Jarrard's Creek, 0.2 of a mile below its crossing of U.S. Route 19, about 9 air miles north-northeast of Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, Georgia; 1,550 feet elevation", USA. Status rejected by Martof, 1962, Am. Midl. Nat., 67: 30. See comment.

Leurognathus marmorata roborata Martof, 1956, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 575: 4. Holotype: UMMZ 111568, by original designation. Type locality: "Reed Creek, along Burrell Ford Road, 0.5 of a mile from its junction with Glade School Road, about 3.5 miles northwest of Pine Mountain Community, Rabun County, Georgia; 2,350 feet elevation", USA. Status rejected by Martof, 1962, Am. Midl. Nat., 67: 30.

Leurognathus marmoratus aureatus — Conant, 1958, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am.: 228.

Leurognathus marmoratus roboratus — Conant, 1958, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am.: 228.

Desmognathus aureatus — Jones, Voss, Ptacek, Weisrock, and Tonkyn, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 38: 285.

Desmognathus (Leurognathus) aureatus — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 145. See comment under Desmognathus regarding the status of the subgenus.

English Names

Golden Shovel-nosed Salamander (Conant, 1958, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am.: 228).

Husky Shovel-nosed Salamander (Leurognathus marmorata roboratus [no longer recognized]: Conant, 1958, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am.: 228).

Distribution

Chattahoochee, Tallulah, and Chattooga River basins of northeastern Georgia and adjacent South Carolina, USA. (See comment.)

Comment

See comment under Desmognathus marmoratus with which this taxon's history is deeply intertwined. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 432–433, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Pyron, O'Connell, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Beamer, 2022, Ecol. Evol., 12 (2: e8574): 1–38, provided molecular evidence that Desmognathus aureatus (their Desmognathus marmoratus B) is a member of the Desmognathus marmoratus complex.

External links:

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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.