A new species of salamander has been discovered at Lake Catherine near Hot Springs.
Researchers from the University of Tulsa and the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission described the amphibian in a scientific paper published in the journal, "Zootaxa."
The Ouachita streambed salamander can be officially added to a list of 28 species of salamanders that call Arkansas home. The discovery was made possible through the collaborative efforts of University of Tulsa Ph.D. student Michael Steffen, his advisor Dr. Ron Bonett, and Arkansas Game & Fish Commission Herpetologist Kelly Irwin.
As part of several ongoing research projects in Bonett's lab, Irwin and Steffen were granted permission to collect salamanders within the state parks system by Greg Butts, Arkansas State Parks director.
Steffen and Irwin began searching for salamanders along streams at Lake Catherine State Park in spring 2011.
"We collected the first specimen in late May 2011, but we didn't know that we had a new species until I sequenced its DNA. That's because the new species is very similar in appearance to the larvae of the common Many-ribbed Salamander, which live in the same stream," Steffen said.
Hampered by drought conditions, the team spent the next year and a half searching for a second specimen to confirm their initial findings. Their efforts were finally rewarded in February 2013 when additional specimens were collected, and further genetic tests confirmed that they had a distinct new species of salamander.
To date, the Ouachita streambed salamander has only be found at short sections of nearby stream sites, making them one of the most restricted known ranges for any amphibian species in the U.S.
Outdoors on 04/17/2014