Triturus macedonicus

Mark

Mark

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Can anyone shed light on Triturus macedonicus?

It appears as a species on Amphibiaweb but with no photos or accounts. The AMNH has it down as a valid species since 2007.

It’s short taxonomic history associates it with both karelinii and carnifex but now it appears as a species in it’s own right.
 
Re: Triturus macedonicus - New species?

This paper suggested it:

Arntzen et al, 2007. "The phylogeny of crested newts (Triturus cristatus superspecies): nuclear and mitochondrial genetic characters suggest a hard polytomy, in line with the paleogeography of the centre
of origin" Contributions to Zoology, 76 (4) 261-278

You should be able to get it here:
http://dpc.uba.uva.nl/cgi/t/text/get-pdf?c=ctz;idno=7604a05
 
Re: Triturus macedonicus - New species?

Awesome! They look so simaliar to the other crested newts, but still they have thier own physical presentation. I would love to see more of these around.
 
Re: Triturus macedonicus - New species?

Thanks Caleb, that’s a very interesting paper (although much of the genetic analysis goes over my head :rolleyes:). It’s the fist time I’ve seen the theory that body length directly relates to the length of the aquatic phase.

So T. macedonicus was originally classed as a sub-species of carnifex but there’s a large enough genetic, morphological and geographical difference to suggest it’s a species; comparable to the difference between pygmaeus and marmoratus.
 
Re: Triturus macedonicus - New species?

Wow, I hadn't heard of it being a species.
 
Re: Triturus macedonicus - New species?

The length-aquatic phase relation is interesting indeed Mark, it could explain why the 'long' T. dobrogicus can be kept aquatic all year round with relative ease.
 
Very interesting. I hadn't even heard any rumours on a split for this species. I had expected the next "Triturus" split to be with L. bosaci. But that's a different story.
 
I feel it's pretty common to keep much shorter newts such as alpines aquatic all year round in captivity. Maybe the body length vs aquatic phase doesn't apply for captive care, but only in nature. has anyone else noticed this? I feel that it is in fact very common for us to keep captive bred newts in drastically different conditions and environmentsh than their natural ones and they seem to be fine with it. I wonder if a couple of generations of captive breeding allow for this? What do others think?

I don't have time right now, but would like to read the paper. It sounds interesting to me as a biologist.
 
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