Ichthyosaura

Ichthyosaura is a genus of newts in the family Salamandridae, found in Europe. It contains one extant species: the alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris).[2] One fossil species from the Miocene, Ichthyosaura randeckensis, has also been referred to this genus,[1] although this has been challenged.[3]

Not to be confused with the prehistoric marine reptile Ichthyosaurus.

Ichthyosaura
Temporal range: Miocene–Recent[1]
Alpine newt, two males during mating season
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Salamandridae
Subfamily: Pleurodelinae
Genus: Ichthyosaura
Sonnini de Manoncourt and Latreille, 1801
Species
Synonyms[2]
  • Hemitriton (Dugès, 1852)
  • Mesotriton (Bolkay, 1927)

The alpine newt was long included in Triturus along with most other European newts. As this genus was found to contain several distinct evolutionary lineages, the alpine newt was split off as genus Mesotriton in 2004.[4] However, the name Ichthyosaura was published earlier and is now accepted as the valid genus name for the alpine newt, while Mesotriton is a junior synonym.[5]

"Ichthyosaura", Greek for "fish lizard", refers to a nymph-like creature in classical mythology.[5]

References
  1. Schoch, R.R.; Rasser, M.W. (2013). "A new salamandrid from the Miocene Randeck Maar, Germany". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33: 58. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.716113.
  2. Frost, D.R. (2020). "Ichthyosaura Sonnini de Manoncourt and Latreille, 1801. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.1". New York, USA: American Museum of Natural History. doi:10.5531/db.vz.0001. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  3. Beatty, B.L.; Marjanović, D.; Witzmann, F. (2015). "An Extremely Peramorphic Newt (Urodela: Salamandridae: Pleurodelini) from the Latest Oligocene of Germany, and a New Phylogenetic Analysis of Extant and Extinct Salamandrids". PLOS ONE. 10 (9): e0137068. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0137068. ISSN 1932-6203.
  4. García-París, M.; Montori, A.; Herrero, P. (2004). Amphibia: Lissamphibia. Fauna Iberica. 24. Madrid: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. ISBN 8400082923.
  5. Schmidtler, J.F. (2009). "Ichthyosaura, der neue Gattungsname für den Bergmolch – ein Lehrbeispiel in Sachen Nomenklatur". Zeitschrift für Feldherpetologie (in German and English). 16: 245–250.
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