D. Sever – Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Urodela

Описание

This book is dedicated to the tailed amphibians commonly known as salamanders
and newts. We use Urodela in the title as the ordinal name for living
and extinct suborders of salamanders, rather than Caudata, as advocated by
some herpetologists. Clearly, however, Urodela and Caudata can comprise
different groups (see Kraig Adler, chapter 1 of this volume, for discussion of
this topic). At the time this volume is completed, AmphibiaWeb (2002) lists
513 species of urodeles (see also chapter 2, by Allan Larson, David Weisrock
and Kenneth Kozak). This number certainly does not account for the entire
diversity of extant species. Although molecular techniques have been most
useful in revealing cryptic species, new species with startling different
morphologies, such as Plethodon petraeus recently described by Wynn et al.
(1988) from northern Georgia (USA), are still being discovered in seemingly
well-collected areas.
Michael Warburg (1997), in his excellent book on ecophysiology of desert
amphibians, states, “It is ironic and tragic that just as the whole amphibian
class is virtually vanishing in front of our eyes without us knowing how to
prevent this, several new books on amphibians should appear.” Indeed,
concern over some species has led to legal attempts to protect them, which
leads to another irony: protective status can hinder our ability to learn more
about the animals in their natural environment, knowledge that could aid
efforts to save the species.
Much of our knowledge about caudate biology is actually based upon
studies on a few very common species, such as Ambystoma tigrinum in the
Ambystomatidae, Desmognathus ocoee and Plethodon cinereus in the Plethodontidae and Cynops pyrrhogaster and Triturus vulgaris in the Salamandridae. These and
several other species have become the “white mice” of the Urodela, from
which generalities about salamanders are made. It will be a shame if 100
years from now, herpetologists will pick up this book and marvel at a time
when salamanders were plentiful and studies could still be conducted in the
field. Imagine how poor our planet will be if one cannot go out at night, and
watch an Aneides forage on a limestone cliff, or a Cryptobranchus, like some
imaginary monster of antiquity, crawl over the bed of a mountain stream. In
our generation, a lot of field-work remains to be done before we can hope to
understand our beloved creatures in their natural environment. While there is
still time and opportunity, let’s get busy.
Some of the authors of these chapters are good friends or at least long-time
acquaintances of mine. Others, I know only through communications
regarding their manuscripts. Working with all of them, however, has been a
joy, and their professional approach and cooperation made my task as editor
a most pleasant and rewarding experience. The entire process of manuscript
submission, review and editing was done through electronic mail, and I thank
the authors for their compliance in these regards. Although each chapter
represents an independent act of scholarship, many of the authors critically
reviewed other chapters. Hopefully, this synergism helps to lend an overall
coherence to the volume. I want to thank Christopher K. Beachy and David B.
Wake, who prepared especially helpful critiques of chapters. Finally, I want to
thank Barrie G. M. Jamieson, the series editor, for entrusting me with this
volume and for all of his editorial help and sound advice.