Amphibian Species of the World 5.6, an Online Reference

Amblystoma aterrimum Cope, 1868 "1867", Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 19: 201. Holotype: USNM 5242 according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 4. Type locality: "North Rocky Mountains"; data with holotype are "crossing of Bitter Root River, north Rocky Mountains (Montana)", USA, according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 4.

Amblystoma aterrimum — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Grad. Batr. Apoda Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 49.

Chondrotus aterrimus — Cope, 1887, Am. Nat., 21: 88. Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 99, 109.

Dicamptodon aterrimus — Dunn, 1923, Proc. New England Zool. Club, 8: 39. Daugherty, Allendorf, Dunlap, and Knudsen, 1983, Copeia, 1983: 679.

English Names

Rocky Mountain Salamander (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 21).

Idaho Giant Salamander (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 28; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 6; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 21; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 159; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 17; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 10).

Distribution

Headwater stream from the Salmon River to the Coeur d'Alene drainage in the Rocky Mountains of northern Idaho and adjacent extreme western Montana, USA.

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Dicamptodon ensatus by Daugherty, Allendorf, Dunlap, and Knudsen, 1983, Copeia, 1983: 679, on the basis of electrophoretic distance. Nussbaum, Brodie, and Storm, 1983, Amph. Rept. Pacific Northwest: 67, rejected the specific distinctness of this form on the basis of overall similarity to Dicamptodon ensatus but the taxon was recognized by Good, 1989, Evolution, 43: 728-744. Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 146-147, Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 159, and Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 73, provided accounts.

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 additional sources of information from other sites search Google
• For images search Arkive, CalPhoto Images and Google Images
• To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
• For information aggregation from other sites and some original accounts see AmphibiaWeb report
• For further information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist;
• for a quick link to their maps see iNaturalist KML