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Thursday, May 28, 2009


Europe has a new newt. A subspecies of the southern crested newt has now been given full species status. Triturus arntzeni was for years thought of as a subspecies of Triturus karelinii but has now been raised to full species.

Congratulations Bulgaria, Rumania, Greece and others

The news was published in a paper called:

Multiple nuclear and mitochondrial genes resolve the branching orderof a rapid radiation of crested newts (Triturus, Salamandridae)G. Espregueira Themudo, B. Wielstra, J.W. Arntzen Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 52 (2009) 321–328

It is always good to hear of new species discovery,
even when those discoveries are made in a laboratory rather than as a result of an intrepid hike into a jungle somewhere, and suchg discoveries also imply that evolution does indeed take place faster than people would otherwise think.

1 comment:

Retrieverman said...

I was about to say it's "total newtity" at the CFZ. But that would be a terrible pun.

Interesting species.

I live in what many experts consider the salamander capital of the world. However, we have only one species of newt-- the Eastern newt in its red-spotted phase. The efts of that species are fluorescent orange in color, so much so they they don't look like they could be a living creature.