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Mio-Pliocene salamanders:
BOARDMAN & SCHUBERT

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Multilingual  Abstracts

Abstract

Introduction

Materials and Methods

Systematic Paleontology

Discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

References

 

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First Mio-Pliocene salamander fossil assemblage
from the southern Appalachians

Grant S. Boardman and Blaine W. Schubert

ABSTRACT

The Gray Fossil Site (GFS) of northeastern Tennessee has yielded a diverse salamander fossil assemblage for the southern Appalachian Mio-Pliocene. This assemblage includes at least five taxa (Ambsytoma sp.; Plethodon sp., Spelerpinae, gen. et sp. indet., Desmognathus sp.; and Notophthalmus sp.) from three families (Ambystomatidae, Plethodontidae, and Salamandridae, respectively). All taxa are present in the area today and support a woodland-pond interpretation of the site. Reported specimens represent the earliest record of their families in the Appalachian Mountains (and the earliest record of Plethodontidae and Ambystomatidae east of the Mississippi River); with the Notophthalmus sp. vertebrae being the only Mio-Pliocene body fossil known for the Salamandridae in North America. The Desmognathus sp. specimens may help shed light on the evolutionary origins of the genus Desmognathus, which purportedly has its roots in this region during the Mio-Pliocene.

Grant S. Boardman. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68588, USA and Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, 37614, USA
Blaine W. Schubert. Department of Geosciences and Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, 37614, USA 

KEYWORDS: Mio-Pliocene; Gray Fossil Site; Caudata; Appalachian; salamanders

PE Article Number: 14.2.16A
Copyright: Society for Vertebrate Paleontology July 2011
Submission: 22 October  2010. Acceptance: 18 April 2011

 

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Mio-Pliocene salamanders
Plain-Language & Multilingual  Abstracts | Abstract | Introduction | Materials and Methods
Systematic Paleontology | Discussion | Conclusions | Acknowledgments | References
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