Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

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Matt Buckingham
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Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by Matt Buckingham »

I just got back from a trip to the Ouachitas with my great pal Scott Wahlberg. Our main target was Ambystoma annulatum. We turned up hundreds of larvae but weren't able to find any terrestrial adults. Fortunately we did pretty well on the Ouachita specialties considering our short time there.

First, some other images from the past month.

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Yellow-bellied Water Snake by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Cajun Chorus Frog by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Eastern Narrowmouth Toad by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Dwarf Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Western Ribbon Snake by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Western Ribbon Snake by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Central Newt by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Marbled Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Smallmouth Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Smallmouth Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Southern Copperhead by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Assassin Bug by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Scorpionfly by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Indian Pipe by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Nodding Ladies' Tresses by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Caddo Lake by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Caddo Lake by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

And now for the Ouachitas

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Fourche Mountain Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Rich Mountain Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Ouachita Dusky Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Many-ribbed Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Southern Redback Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

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Western Slimy Salamander by Matt Buckingham, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!
Herpetologist115
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by Herpetologist115 »

Nice salamanders! I really like the smallmouth.
VICtort
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by VICtort »

Some nice photos herein...and the cypress marsh is a site to behold. I am unfamiliar with the Quachitas, can you birefly describe why the speciation occurs there, are they an isolated range, geographical feature, etc.? Why the apparently high degree of endimism?

thanks for posting these beautiful salamanders.

Vic
Matt Buckingham
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by Matt Buckingham »

There are species endemic to the Ouachitas because it is an isolated formation. The closest similar habitat is the Ozarks, but for most salamanders there may as well be an ocean in the way. The Ouachitas, Ozarks, and other inland mountainous formations were once connected to each other, and to the Appalachians. Over time populations became isolated as impassible barriers formed between them.

Speciation within the Ouachitas, specifically the Plethodon ouachitae complex, occurs because animals with such a specific habitat preference easily become isolated through changes in habitat that occur with changes in elevation, even if they are minimal.
ritt
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by ritt »

Awesome stuff, Matt. I keep telling myself I need to make it up to the Ouachitas, one of these days it's actually going to happen.

Vic, the Ouachitas are relatively isolated, which probably plays a role in the number of endemic salamanders there. Although I'm not sure I've seen great data supporting this, but I suspect many salamanders have relatively narrow environmental tolerances, or at least narrow ranges where they are best adapted. In the Appalachians in particular, it's common to have one salamander species replaced by another at higher elevations (which may be due to either 1) the high elevation species physiologically can't move to lower elevations and the low elevation species can't move to higher elevations or 2) (perhaps the more likely scenario) the high elevation species can't compete with the low elevation species at low elevations (because it is better adapted for the conditions at high elevations) and the low elevation species either physiologically can't move to higher elevations, or can't compete with the high elevation species at high elevations. Either way, narrow optimal windows of environmental conditions in salamanders may also play a role in the high degree of endemism.

-Eric
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gbin
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by gbin »

Gorgeous photos, Matt! Thanks for sharing them with us! I have to admit, as lovely as the herp shots are, your shots of Caddo Lake are my favorite. :thumb:

Gerry
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kaptainkory
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by kaptainkory »

Nice job, Matt. I hope you'll consider adding your pics to the Herps of Arkansas Flickr group.

A couple of recent papers regarding the Ouachita Mountains salamanders:

Morphological Differentiation in Ouachita Mountain Endemic Salamanders

Local-scale environmental variation generates highly divergent lineages associated with stream drainages in a terrestrial salamander, Plethodon caddoensis. (Couldn't find a free PDF link.)

Phylogeographic and demographic effects of Pleistocene climatic fluctuations in a montane salamander, Plethodon fourchensis

Lineage diversification and historical demography of a sky island salamander, Plethodon ouachitae, from the Interior Highlands
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FunkyRes
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by FunkyRes »

Those are some really cool photos!
Thank you for sharing them.
Matt Buckingham
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by Matt Buckingham »

Thanks all.

Kaptain: Thanks for the links to the papers (the second one isn't working for me). I read the Shepard and Burbrink paper some time ago and would recommend that one to anyone interested in the topic.
Msteffen
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by Msteffen »

Cool post. How hard was it finding some of the endemics? Did you find many? I thought about getting out there recently but I know the area hasn't got much rain at all recently.

Eventually, there will be a couple more papers talking about genetic structure in the ouachitas on other taxa there.

Mike
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Mulebrother
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by Mulebrother »

Nice stuff...always cool to see someone come find stuff in your backyard! Looks like you did alright...but yeah, good luck on the annulatum. I was with a guy that flipped one down at the base of rich mountain last year...and I know dick bartlett flipped one down there a couple years ago...but thats a hard one to come across unless is raining hard one night in october and you are in the right place! Much harder than the endemics, thats for sure. We were down there the first weekend in OCT and i was suprised how dry it was...seems like that area has had consistent/normal rain- NW Arkansas has...but seems like it was awfully dry down there to me. Still found all three endemics over a weekend though. Nice post!
Matt Buckingham
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by Matt Buckingham »

The endemics weren't particularly difficult to find. We didn't find too many, but that's probably because we didn't put a whole lot of effort into finding them. We were more focused on annulatum. We knew it wasn't the opportune time, but it was the only weekend we could make work, and we hoped we might get lucky. It was still worth the trip, the Ouachitas are awesome and the species we did find made up for not finding terrestrial annulatum.
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jonathan
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by jonathan »

Very awesome! Did you database all that?
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kaptainkory
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by kaptainkory »

Matt Buckingham wrote:Kaptain: Thanks for the links to the papers (the second one isn't working for me).
I think I got the link working now.
txherper
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Re: Ouachita Mountain Endemics and other Odds and Ends

Post by txherper »

Mulebro, most of southwest Arkansas is historically dry right now.
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