Elimination kinetics of acetylene and Freon 22 in resting and active lungless salamanders.

Exercising with and without Lungs I. the Effects of Metabolic Cost, Maximal Oxygen Transport and Body Size on Terrestrial Locomotion in Salamander Species

Metabolic cost, oxygen consumption ( M Q J , respiratory structure and body size interact to determine the capacity of salamanders for terrestrial locomotion. Salamanders respiring via both lungs and skin, Ambystoma laterale and A. tigrinum, or with skin alone, Desmognathus ochrophaeus and D. quadramaculatus, attained a steady-state M,^ during exercise in a treadmill respirometer. Endurance was...

Convergent evolutionary reduction of atrial septation in lungless salamanders

Nearly two thirds of the approximately 700 species of living salamanders are lungless. These species respire entirely through the skin and buccopharyngeal mucosa. Lung loss dramatically impacts the configuration of the circulatory system but the effects of evolutionary lung loss on cardiac morphology have long been controversial. For example, there is presumably little need for an atrial septum...

First Report of Ranavirus Infecting Lungless Salamanders

Montane Salamanders from the Costa Rica–Panamá Border Region, with Descriptions of Two New Species of Bolitoglossa

Two new species of lungless salamanders (Plethodontidae) are described from montane habitats of eastern Costa Rica and adjacent western Panamá. Bolitoglossa gomezi and B. bramei are distinguished from each other and from other salamander species in this remote area in adult body size, external proportions, foot webbing, tooth counts, and/or external coloration. Both new species are assigned to ...

Direct development in the lungless salamanders: what are the consequences for developmental biology, evolution and phylogenesis?

Direct development is a widespread alternate reproductive mode in living amphibians that is characterized by evolutionary loss of the free-living, aquatic larval stage. Courtship, mating, and oviposition occur on land, and the terrestrial egg hatches as a fully formed, miniature adult. While it is the most common reproductive mode in urodeles, development outside the reproductive tract of the f...