A new species of Crocodile Newt Tylototriton (Caudata: Salamandridae) from Shan State, Myanmar (Burma)

Abstract

A phylogenetic taxonomic analysis of a monophyletic subgroup of the salamandrid genus Tylototriton revealed that a newly discovered population from Ngar Su Village, 1 km south of Ywangan, Shan State, Myanmar is a new species and most closely related to T. shanorum from approximately 80 km to the west in the vicinity of Taunggyi, Shan State. Tylototriton ngarsuensis sp. nov. differs from other closely related species of Tylototriton on basis of varying combinations of characteristics associated with it shorter head, larger size, rib nodule morphology, and overall drab, very dark, coloration, along with its genetic differentiation. Tylototriton ngarsuensis sp. nov. also appears to breed later in the year than most other species. Unfortunately, this species like many other Asian newts, is being harvested for the pet and medicinal trade and given its restricted distribution, this could pose a serious threat to its long-term survival.

Integrative taxonomy reveals three new taxa within the Tylototriton asperrimus complex (Caudata, Salamandridae) from Vietnam

“…Given the high demand of Tylototriton species in the international trade, and the persistent evidence of a high poaching rate (Gong and Mu 2008;Nishikawa et al 2014;Phimmachak et al 2015b;Rowley et al 2016;Bernardes et al 2017;Grismer et al 2018) we decided to follow Hou et al (2014) and cautiously omit the exact locations in this manuscript.…”

“…asperrimus, based Figure 1. Current distribution map of the genus Tylototriton, from South and Central China, to northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Bhutan and Nepal (Hernandez 2016;Qian et al 2017;Grismer et al 2018;Wang et al 2018;Grismer et al 2019;Hernandez et al 2019;Zaw et al 2019). In red the distribution areas belonging to the subgenus Tylototriton, and in blue the distribution areas belonging to the sub-genus Yaotriton (Dubois and Raffaëlli 2009).…”

A new species of Crocodile Newt, genus Tylototriton (Amphibia, Caudata, Salamandridae) from the mountains of Kachin State, northern Myanmar

“…and Yaotriton (Wang et al, 2018). Molecular taxonomy methods have proven to be useful for deciphering taxonomic diversity of the genus Tylototriton , with 13 species (over 50%) described in the past five years (Grismer et al, 2018a; Hou et al, 2012; Khatiwada et al, 2015; Nishikawa et al, 2013a, 2013b, 2014; Phimmachak et al, 2015; Shen et al, 2012; Yang et al, 2014; Zhao et al, 2012). However, recent molecular surveys indicate that our knowledge on taxonomic diversity of the genus Tylototriton is still far from complete, revealing several cryptic lineages likely corresponding to as yet undescribed species (Grismer et al, 2018a;Wang et al, 2018).…”

“…Myanmar, previously known as Burma, is the largest country of mainland Southeast Asia. Despite this, its herpetofauna remains one of the least explored in the region (Grismer et al, 2018a). Members of the genus Tylototriton have long been recorded from northern and eastern parts of Myanmar and have been traditionally classified as T. verrucosus Anderson, 1871 (Gyi, 1969).…”

“…Soon after, Phimmachak et al(2015） published sequence data for specimens collected from the Sagaing Region and Kachin State in northern Myanmar, which were reported as T. verrucosus . More recently, Grismer et al (2018a) demonstrated the presence of two morphologically and genetically distinct lineages of Tylototriton in the Shan Plateau and described a new species from its north-western edge, T. ngarsuensis Grismer, Wood, Quah, Thura, Espinoza, Grismer, Murdoch & Lin, 2018. The same work of Grismer et al (2018a) reanalyzed sequences of specimens from the Sagaing and Kachin regions of Myanmar and demonstrated that they belong to a distinct lineage – Tylototriton sp.…”