THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Northern Zigzag Salamander
Plethodon dorsalis Cope, 1889

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.10.09.27.05)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.2 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Illinois Indiana Kentucky Tennessee

First instance(s) of published English names:
Dorsal Salamander (Salamandra dorsalis: Gray, John E. 1830. A synopsis of the species of the class reptilia. Pages 1-110 in The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with its Organization by the Baron Cuvier, member of teh Institute of France, with Additional Descriptions of all the Species Hitherto Named, and of many not before noticed. Ninth Volume. Whittaker, Treacher, and Company, London, England. pp.); Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon erythronotus: Jordan, David Starr. 1876. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. 342pp.); Ashy Lizard (Plethodon cinereus dorsalis: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Zigzag Salamander (Plethodon dorsalis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1889 Cope, Edward D. The batrachia of North America. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (34):1-525
1956 Highton, Richard. The relationships of the salamanders of the genus Plethodon. Dissertation. University of Florida, Gainesville. 224pp.
1957 Thurow, Gordon R. Relationships of the red-backed and zig-zag Plethodons in the west. Herpetologica 13(2):91-99
1962 Highton, Richard. Revision of North American salamanders of the genus Plethodon. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 6(3):235-267
1966 Thurow, Gordon R. Plethodon dorsalis. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (29):1-3
1979 Highton, Richard and A. Larson. The genetic relationships of salamanders of the genus Plethodon. Systematic Zoology 28(4):579-599
1979 Maxson, Linda R., Richard Highton, and David B. Wake. Albumin evolution and its phylogenetic implications in the plethodontid salamander genera Plethodon and Ensatina. Copeia 1979(3):502-508
1984 Maxson, Linda R., Richard Highton, and David Ondrula. Immunological evidence on genetic relationships of Plethodon dorsalis. Journal of Herpetology 18(3):341-344
1991 Highton, Richard H. Molecular phylogeny of Plethodonine salamanders and Hylid frogs: Statistical analysis of protein comparisons. Molecular Biology and Evolution 8(6):796-818
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and reptiles in the upper Mississippi river valley: Systematic and distributional problems. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 66(4):149-152
1993 Arnold, Steven J., Nancy L. Reagan, and Paul A. Verrell. Reproductive isolation and speciation in plethodontid salamanders. Herpetologica 49(2):216-228
1997 Highton, Richard. Geographic protein variation and speciation in the Plethodon dorsalis complex. Herpetologica 53(3):345-356
2004 Sites, Jack W., Jr, Mariana Morando, Richard Highton, Fred Huber, and Robin E. Jung. Phylogenetic relationships of the endangered Shenandoah Salamander (Plethodon shenandoah) and other salamanders of the Plethodon cinereus group (Caudata: Plethodontidae). Journal of Herpetology 38(1):96-105
2006 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Does niche conservatism promote speciation? A case study in North American salamanders. Evolution 60(12):2604-2621
2006 Kozak, Kenneth H., David W. Weisrock, and Allan Larson. Rapid lineage accumulation in a non-adaptive radiation: Phylogenetic analysis of diversification rates in eastern North American woodland salamanders (Plethodontidae: Plethodon). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2006(273):539-546
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letters 13:1378-1389
2011 Fisher-Reid, M. Caitlin and John J. Wiens. What are the consequences of combining nuclear and mitochondrial data for phylogenetic analysis? Lessons from Plethodon salamanders and 13 other vertebrate clades. BMC Evolutionary Biology 11:1-20
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 21 April 2025 12:48 CT