Hynobiidae Cope, 1859

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Hynobiidae

Molgina Bonaparte, 1850, Conspect. Syst. Herpetol. Amph.: 1 p. Type genus: Molge Bonaparte, 1839 (= Hynobius Tschudi, 1838).

Molgidae Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 14. Type genus: Molge Bonaparte, 1839 (= Hynobius Tschudi, 1838).

Ellipsoglossidae Hallowell, 1856, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 8: 11. Type genus: Ellipsoglossa Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854 (= Hynobius Tschudi, 1838). Synonymy by Cope, 1859, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 11: 125; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Grad. Batr. Apoda Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 31; by implication of regarding Ellipsoglossa as a junior synonym of Hynobius.

Hynobiidae Cope, 1859, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 11: 125. Type genus: Hynobius Tschudi, 1838.

Molgida — Knauer, 1883, Naturgesch. Lurche: 97.

Geyeriellinae Brame, 1958, List World’s Fossil Caudata: 5. Type genus: Geyeriella Herre, 1950. Unavailable name due to being distributed by mimeograph.

Hynobiinae — Regal, 1966, Evolution, 20: 405. Fei and Ye, 2000, Cultum Herpetol. Sinica, 8: 64.

Protohynobiinae Fei and Ye, 2000, Cultum Herpetol. Sinica, 8: 64. Type genus: Protohynobius Fei and Ye, 2000. Synonymy by Peng, Zhang, Xiong, Gu, Zeng, and Zou, 2010, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 56: 257.

English Names

Asian Salamanders (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 28; Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 8).

Asiatic Salamanders (Halliday and Adler, 2002, New Encyclop. Rept. Amph.: 47; Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 8).

Distribution

From Kamchatka through Siberia to eastern European Russia to Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Iran and eastward to Korea, Japan, and China.

Comment

Dunn, 1923, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci., 58: 445-523, discussed phylogeny within Hynobiidae and provided accounts, keys, and synonymies. Zhao and Hu, 1984, Stud. Chinese Tailed Amph.: 3-13, discussed the Chinese genera and their phylogeny (see Zhao, Hu, Jiang, and Yang, 1988, Studies on Chinese Salamanders, for english translation). See Zhao and Zhang, 1985, Acta Herpetol. Sinica, Chengdu, N.S.,, 4 (3): 209-212, for phylogeny of Chinese species. Sever, 1991, J. Morphol., 207: 283-301, discussed clocal structure as it reflects phylogeny. Regal, 1966, Evolution, 20: 405, regarded Hynobiidae to be a subfamily of Cryptobranchidae. Fei and Ye, 2005, in Fei et al. (eds.), Illust. Key Chinese Amph.: 25-36, provided keys and brief accounts for Chinese species. Larson, Weisrock, and Kozak, 2003, in Sever (ed.), Reprod. Biol. Phylogeny Urodela: 41-45, discussed the group and a possible phylogeny. Wiens, Bonett, and Chippindale, 2005, Syst. Biol., 54; Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 115' and Wiens, Bonett, and Chippindale, 2005, Syst. Biol., 54: 91-110, presented evidence that bears on the family's placement as the sister taxon of Cryptobranchidae. Chen, Jiang, and Qu, 2004, Acta Zootaxon. Sinica, 29: 464-469, and Zhang, Chen, Zhou, Liu, Wang, Papenfuss, Wake, and Qu, 2006, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103: 7360-7365, reported on phylogeny within Hynobiidae based on mtDNA analysis. Vitt and Caldwell, 2009, Herpetology, 3rd Ed.: 424, provided a general taxonomic account as part of a much more general overview. Zhang and Wake, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 53: 492-508, reported on molecular phylogenetics of salamanders based on mtDNA and provided an estimate of time since origin of the salamander families. Xiong, Sun, Zhu, and Liu, 2009, Sichuan J. Zool., 28: 958-961, briefly treated the taxonomic history of Chinese species. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583 (see comment in Amphibia record) provided as part of a larger analysis confirmed the monophyly of Hynobiidae and relationships among their exemplars consistent with the topology Onychodactylus + ((Pachyhynobius + Salamandrella) + (Hynobius + (Ranodon + Paradactylodon) + (Batrachuperus + (Pseudohynobius + Liua)))). Zheng, Peng, Kuro-o, and Zeng, 2011, Mol. Biol. Evol., 28: 2521-2535, reported on the estimated time of origin of this taxon. Blackburn and Wake, 2011, In Zhang (ed.), Zootaxa, 3148, 3148: 39-55, briefly reviewed the taxonomic history of this taxon. Chen, Wang, Liu, Xie, and Jiang, 2011, Curr. Zool., Chengdu, 57: 785805, reported on a tree of 11 protein-coding mtDNA genes that confirmed the monophyly of Hynobiidae and suggested generic relationships of Onychodactylus + (Pachyhynobius + ((Paradactylodon + Ranodon) + (Hynobius + (Batrachuperus + (Liua + Pseudhynobius))))).

Contained taxa

Batrachuperus Boulenger, 1878 (6 sp.)
Hynobius Tschudi, 1838 (32 sp.)
Liua Zhao and Hu, 1983 (2 sp.)
Onychodactylus Tschudi, 1838 (6 sp.)
Pachyhynobius Fei, Qu, and Wu, 1983 (1 sp.)
Paradactylodon Risch, 1984 (3 sp.)
Pseudohynobius Fei and Yang, 1983 (6 sp.)
Ranodon Kessler, 1866 (1 sp.)
Salamandrella Dybowski, 1870 (2 sp.)

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