We reported last month that Georgia is home to 51 salamander species. We didn’t know at the time, though, that a team of researchers at the University of Georgia and some other institutions had discovered a “new” salamander species in the state. That brings the total to 52 species.
At just 2 inches long, the newly discovered species is the second-smallest salamander in the United States and one of the smallest in the world. The discovery was made in the spring of 2007 near Toccoa in Stephens County in North Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest, but it was not announced officially until this month.
Graduate students Joe Milanovich at UGA and Bill Peterman at the University of Missouri said they weren’t looking for anything new that day when they went exploring in the woods for other salamander species. But when they spied the tiny salamander — a female with eggs — in a creek, they realized that they had come across an animal not normally found in Georgia. They did not know, though, how unusual it was — that it was an entirely “new” species previously unknown to science. Salamanders, along with frogs and toads, are amphibians.
They contacted John Maerz, assistant UGA wildlife professor, who advised them to take the salamander to Carlos Camp, a Piedmont College professor and a leading salamander expert. Camp excitedly proclaimed it a possible new salamander species. Trip Lamb, professor at East Carolina University, used genetic analyses to confirm Camp’s assessment. Not only was it a new species, it also represents a new genus of salamanders — the first genus of a four-footed creature discovered in the United States in 50 years.
After the first specimen was found, researchers went back repeatedly looking for others. That’s when Milanovich and Maerz’s then 10-year-old son, Jack, found the first male individual. Since then, the research team has found several other specimens at the original site and at a few other sites, including one in South Carolina.
Maerz noted that the new species initially was found in a well-traveled area in the middle of a creek next to a road. To make such a find in an area with extensive human activity, he said, proves that “there are still things out there to discover. It makes you wonder what else is out there.”
A scientific account of the discovery was published this month in the Journal of Zoology. The new species has been given the common name patch-nosed salamander and the scientific named Urspelerpes brucei for Richard Bruce, professor emeritus at Western Carolina University and a longtime salamander researcher.
IN THE SKY: The moon will be new Tuesday night. On Thursday, look for the thin crescent moon low in the west just after sunset, says David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Northwest Georgia Science Museum. Venus, shining brightly, rises about three hours in the east before the sun. Mars is low in the east just before sunrise. Both Mars and Venus will appear near the moon Sunday morning. Jupiter rises out of the east about an hour after sunset. Saturn is high in the west at sunset and sets before midnight.
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