Pleurodeles waltl Michahelles, 1830

Common Names

Sharp-ribbed Salamander (Arnold and Burton, 1978, Field Guide Rept. Amph. Brit. Eur.: 38; Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 53).

Ribbed Salamander (Hellmich, 1962, Rept. Amph. Eur.: 39).

Ribbed Newt (Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 53).

Spanish Newt (Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 53).

Spanish Ribbed Newt (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 35).

Sharp-ribbed Newt (Martínez Rica, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 62).

Iberian Ribbed Newt (Steward, 1969, Tailed Amph. Eur.: 39).

Spanish Newt (Escoriza and Ben Hassine, 2019, Amph. N. Afr.: 95).

Distribution

Iberia, except for north, northwest, and northeast; coastal plain of northern Morocco.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Gibralter, Morocco, Portugal, Spain

Comment

Frequently referred to incorrectly as Pleurodeles waltli. See account by Salvador, 1996, Smithson. Herpetol. Inform. Serv., 109: 5-7, for account of North African population. Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 209-217, provided an account. See also discussion of relevant literature and distribution by Martínez Rica, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 62-63. Salvador and García-París, 1999, in Grossenbacher and Thiesmeier (eds.), Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., 4(1): 209-228, provided an extensive review of biology. Barbadillo-Escrivá, 1987, Guia INCAFO Anf. Rept. Peninsula Iberica: 95-100, provided an account for the Iberian populations. Obst in Engelmann, Fritzsche, Günther, and Obst, 1993, Lurche Kriechtiere Eur.: 76-78, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Montori, Llorente, Santos, and Carretero, 1997, in Pleguezuelos (ed.), Dist. Biogeogr. Anf. Rep. Esp. Portugal: 109-111, provided a brief account, photograph, and detailed map for Iberia. Guerra Batista, Harris, and Carretero, 2003, Herpetozoa, Wien, 16: 166-168, and Carranza and Arnold, 2004, Syst. Biodiversity, 1: 327-337, suggested that Pleurodeles waltl is composed of two genetically distinctive geographical groups: 1) one in southeastern and eastern Spain as well as in northern Morocco (where its presence thought by Carranza and Arnold might be due to human introduction); 2) Portugal and southwestern and central Spain. Llorente, Montori, Santos, and Carretero, 1995, Atlas Amf. Rept. Catalunya Andorra: 44-45, provided an account and detailed range map for Catalunya. Veith, Mayer, Samraoui, Donaire-Barroso, and Bogaerts, 2004, J. Biogeograph., 31: 159-171, reported on molecular phylogeography and relationships with Pleurodeles poireti. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 642. Nöllert and Nöllert, 1992, Die Amph. Eur.: 169-172, provided a brief account and polygon map for Europe. Rivera, Escoriza, Maluquer-Margalef, Arribas, and Carranza, 2011, Amf. Rept. Catalunya: 36-39, provided a brief account for northeastern Spain. Beukema, de Pous, Donaire-Barroso, Bogaerts, Garcia-Porta, Escoriza, Arribas, El Mouden, and Carranza, 2013, Zootaxa, 3661: 29-31, discussed the Moroccan population and its previous confusion with Pleurodeles poireti. Van de Vliet, Diekmann, Machado, Beebee, Beja, and Serrão, 2014, J. Herpetol., 48: 38–44, reported on the geographic patterns of genetic differention in southwestern Portugal. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 178–179, provided a brief account, photographs, and range map. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 307–310, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Mediani, Brito, and Fahd, 2015, Basic & Appl. Herpetol., 29: 81–107, provided a dot map for northern Morocco. Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Barbosa, and Martínez-Solano, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 112: 122–137, reported on molecular phylogeography. Escoriza and Ben Hassine, 2017, Zootaxa, 4237: 587–592, compared the larval morphology of Pleurodeles nebulosus, Pleurodeles waltl, and Pleurodeles poireti. Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok, and Van Der Voort, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Brit. Eur.: 77, provided a brief account and distribution map. Hernandez, 2018, Herpetol. Bull., London, 144: 19–21, discussed the range in Morocco and provided new cave localities. See detailed account by Escoriza and Ben Hassine, 2019, Amph. N. Afr.: 95–104. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 36–37, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 155, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 265–268, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). 

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

• For access to general information see Wikipedia
• For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
• For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
• For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
• 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.