THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Southern Red-backed Salamander
Plethodon serratus Grobman, 1944

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: 2023.04.10.09.27.04)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.38 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Alabama Arkansas Georgia Louisiana Missouri North Carolina Oklahoma Tennessee Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Mud-puppy (Plethoden cinereus erythronotus: Coues, Elliott and Henry C. Yarrow. 1878. Notes on the natural history of Fort Macon, N. C. and Vicinity (No. 4). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 30():21-28); Red-backed Salamander (Plethoden cinereus erythronotus: Coues, Elliott and Henry C. Yarrow. 1878. Notes on the natural history of Fort Macon, N. C. and Vicinity (No. 4). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 30():21-28); Ouachita Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus serratus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Ouachita Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus serratus: Conant, Roger, Fred R. Cagle, Coleman J. Goin, Charles H. Lowe, Wilfred T. Neill, M. Graham Netting, Karl P. Schmidt, Charles E. Shaw, Robert C. Stebbins, and Charles M. Bogert. 1956. Common names for North American amphibians and reptiles. Copeia 1956(3):172-185);

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
1944 Grobman, Arnold B. The distribution of the salamanders of the genus Plethodon in eastern United States and Canada. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 45(7):261-316
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
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
1986 Highton, Richard Plethodon serratus Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (394):1-2
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
1993 Arnold, Steven J., Nancy L. Reagan, and Paul A. Verrell. Reproductive isolation and speciation in plethodontid salamanders. Herpetologica 49(2):216-228
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., 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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 21 April 2025 13:21 CT