Identification needed

[froggy]

Hi all

A friend of a friend found this newt in central Portugal. Any ideas what it is...it looks like a Triturus cristatus group, but I don't think their range extend into Portugal.

Any ideas?

 

[eljorgo]

Its a Triturus marmoratus. I´ve been in several spots in central to northern Portugal and found exactly these very dark fellas. Believe it or not, when i found i asked my self exactly the same "what the **** is this" examining better these guys are normal marms that get pretty dark with just some few dark green lines trough the body and also when they get out of water their green is not common. Like I said, its really really dark with the black covering more than 75% of the dorsal surface.
In the intersection of the tail with the vent (in cloacal region) where it gets a bit more of light you can see green refelxes.
Hope I have been useful
Cheers,
Jorge

 

[Azhael]

I´ve heard of those superdark marmoratus..i think the key to identifying them in a hurry is looking at the belly.

 

[enricolatiano]

i think it is a lissotriton or calotriton asper

 

[eljorgo]

I´m very sorry to say this but its completely nonsense. First of all because we are talking of Portugal were there are only Triturus and lissotriton. And if lissotriton it could only be boscai witch is a tiny little newt and not the "monstrosity" on the picture. 100% Sure dark individual of T. marmoratus.
Cheers,

 

[Azhael]

I agree there is no way it´s a Calotriton and the only Lissotriton it could remotely be would be L.boscai which it is not. You can see the belly is black and white which is exclusive of T.marmoratus.

 

[Mac Myers]

Amazing knowledge. Smart People are cool.

 

[enricolatiano]

in portugal the reproductive sites of the marmoratuses are few I am exclusively there pygmaeus

 

[Azhael]

Not true. T.marmoratus occupies the north of Portugal, almost a third of the country and it´s locally rather common as it is in nearby spanish autonomical communities such as mine.
Although it could be T.pygmaeus, the only way to tell for sure is knowing the exact location.

 

[eljorgo]

May I have to say it again? Pygmaeus exist only in south part of Tejo river. They are much more lush green and attain smaller sizes than that adult fella on the pic.
Also Tejo cuts Portugal in a half but southern, this means this fella was caught in t.marmoratus distributional area. If it was a pygmy instead of black you would see so many green nothing to compare.
Also we have brains to think (I suppose its his function)
So a high lightning and contrast drop in the pic. resulted in this:

Like you guys can see, there are numerous green marcations and spots on all the dorsal view of the body.
It´s this enough?!
Cheers,

 

[froggy]

Fantastic, thanks very much.

Chris