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Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  
Western Dwarf Salamander
Eurycea paludicola (Mittleman, 1947)
yoor-EE-see-uh — puh-LOO-dih-koh-luh
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SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Elevated from the synonymy of E. quadridigitata by Wray et al. (2017, Herpetological Monographs 31: 18–46) based on phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear data from population-level sampling across the range of the nominal taxon. (Pyron, R. Alexander, Christopher K. Beachy, David A. Beamer, and Kenneth M. Kozak. 2025. Caudata – Salamanders. Pages 10-21 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 525 Total; 48 Museum; 477 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.04.08.20.59.18)
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Arkansas Louisiana Mississippi Texas

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its swampy habitat.
Eurycea — Rafinesque (1822) intentionally used a mythological-sounding name, but its specific Greek meaning or derivation was not disclosed. So, while modern etymologists may connect Eurycea to Eurydice or Greek roots (eurys “broad”), Rafinesque himself treated it as a classical name without a defined origin.
paludicola — Latin palus = “swamp” + -cola = “dweller”; “Swamp-dweller”

First instance(s) of published English names:
Dwarf Four-toed Salamander (Manculus quadridigitatus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);


Selected References:
1947 Mittleman, M. Budd. American caudata. I. Geographic variation in Manculus quadridigitatus. Herpetologica 3(6):209-224
1993 Arnold, Steven J., Nancy L. Reagan, and Paul A. Verrell. Reproductive isolation and speciation in plethodontid salamanders. Herpetologica 49(2):216-228
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letter 13:1378-1389
2017 Wray, K. P., D. B. Means, and S. J. Steppan. Revision of the Eurycea quadridigitata (Holbrook 1842) complex of Dwarf Salamanders (Caudata: Plethodontidae: Hemidactyliinae) with a description of two new species. Herpetological Monographs 31(1):18–46

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