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Okamiya H, Sugime R, Furusawa C, Inoue Y, Kishida O. Paedomorphosis in the Ezo salamander (Hynobius retardatus) rediscovered after almost 90 years. ZOOLOGICAL LETTERS 2021; 7:14. [PMID: 34876208 PMCID: PMC8653548 DOI: 10.1186/s40851-021-00183-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2021] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Although paedomorphosis is widespread across salamander families, only two species have ever been documented to exhibit paedomorphosis in Hynobiidae. One of these two exceptional species is Hynobius retardatus in which paedomorphosis was first reported in 1924, in specimens from Lake Kuttara in Hokkaido. This population became extinct after the last observation in 1932; since then, no paedomorphs of this species have been reported anywhere. Here, we report the rediscovery of paedomorphs of this species. Three paedomorph-like male salamanders were collected from a pond in the south Hokkaido in December 2020 and April 2021; in size, these specimens were similar to metamorphosed adults but they still displayed larval features such as external gills and a well-developed caudal fin. An artificial fertilization experiment demonstrated that they were sexually compatible with metamorphosed females, thus, confirming them to be paedomorphs. Future efforts to find additional paedomorphs in this and other populations are required to assess the prevalence of paedomorphosis in H. retardatus and to improve understanding of the ecology and evolution of paedomorphisis in Urodela.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hisanori Okamiya
- Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Takaoka, Tomakomai Japan
| | - Ryohei Sugime
- Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Takaoka, Tomakomai Japan
| | - Chiharu Furusawa
- Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, N10W5 Japan
| | - Yoshihiro Inoue
- Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Takaoka, Tomakomai Japan
| | - Osamu Kishida
- Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Takaoka, Tomakomai Japan
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Jia J, Gao K, Jiang J, Bever GS, Xiong R, Wei G. Comparative osteology of the hynobiid complex Liua-Protohynobius-Pseudohynobius (Amphibia, Urodela): Ⅰ. Cranial anatomy of Pseudohynobius. J Anat 2021; 238:219-248. [PMID: 32964448 PMCID: PMC7812138 DOI: 10.1111/joa.13311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2020] [Revised: 08/20/2020] [Accepted: 08/25/2020] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Hynobiidae are a clade of salamanders that diverged early within the crown radiation and that retain a considerable number of features plesiomorphic for the group. Their evolutionary history is informed by a fossil record that extends to the Middle Jurassic Bathonian time. Our understanding of the evolution within the total group of Hynobiidae has benefited considerably from recent discoveries of stem hynobiids but is constrained by inadequate anatomical knowledge of some extant forms. Pseudohynobius is a derived hynobiid clade consisting of five to seven extant species living endemic to southwestern China. Although this clade has been recognized for over 37 years, osteological details of these extant hynobiids remain elusive, which undoubtedly has contributed to taxonomic controversies over the hynobiid complex Liua-Protohynobius-Pseudohynobius. Here we provide a bone-by-bone study of the cranium in the five extant species of Pseudohynobius (Ps. flavomaculatus, Ps. guizhouensis, Ps. jinfo, Ps. kuankuoshuiensis and Ps. shuichengensis) based on x-ray computer tomography data for 18 specimens. Our results indicate that the cranium in each of these species has a combination of differences in morphology, proportions and articulation patterns in both dermal and endochondral bones. Our study establishes a range of intraspecific differences that will serve as organizing hypotheses for future studies as more extensive collections of these species become available. Morphological features in the cranium for terrestrial ecological adaptation in Hynobiidae are summarized. Based on the results, we also discuss the evolution and development of several potential synapomorphies of Hynobiidae, including features of the orbitosphenoid and articular.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Jia
- School of Earth and Space SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina,State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS)NanjingChina
| | - Ke‐Qin Gao
- School of Earth and Space SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Jian‐ping Jiang
- Chengdu Institute of BiologyChinese Academy of SciencesChengduChina
| | - Gabriel S. Bever
- Center for Functional Anatomy & EvolutionJohns Hopkins University School of MedicineBaltimoreMDUSA
| | - Rongchuan Xiong
- Department of Life ScienceLiupanshui Normal UniversityLiupanshuiChina
| | - Gang Wei
- Biodiversity Conservation Key LaboratoryGuiyang CollegeGuiyangChina
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Jiang JP, Jia J, Zhang M, Gao KQ. Osteology of Batrachuperus londongensis (Urodela, Hynobiidae): study of bony anatomy of a facultatively neotenic salamander from Mount Emei, Sichuan Province, China. PeerJ 2018; 6:e4517. [PMID: 29610705 PMCID: PMC5878659 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2017] [Accepted: 02/25/2018] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
The Longdong Stream Salamander Batrachuperus londongensis, living in a mountain stream environment at Mt. Emei in Sichuan Province, China, represents a rare species that is facultatively neotenic in the family Hynobiidae. Although the species has been known to science for some 40 years since its initial discovery in the late 1970s, anatomical details of its osteology remain poorly understood and developmental information is still lacking for the species. This study (1) provides a detailed osteological account of B. londongensis based on micro-CT scanning and clearing and staining of multiple specimens from the type locality; (2) provides a discussion of intraspecific variation related to life-history differences; and (3) presents a discussion on limb features related to morphological evolution of limb patterns correlative with ecological adaptation to mountain stream environments. Osteological comparisons with congeneric species has led to recognition of several diagnostic features that are unique to B. londongensis, including: vomers widely separated from one another, lacking a midline contact; presence of uncommon perichondral ossification of the ascending process of the palatoquadrate as part of the suspensorium; and presence of a prominent posterodorsal process of the scapular blade, which serves as a ligamentous insertion of the levator muscle of the scapula. In addition, some but not all neotenic individuals retain the palatine as a discrete element, indicative of its delayed absorption after sexual maturity. Postmetamorphic and neotenic individuals are strikingly different in the complexity of hyobranchial structures. Neotenes display a high degree of ossification of hyobranchial elements, tend to increase ossification of both hypobranchial I and ceratobranchial I during aging, and retain fully ossified ceratobranchial III and IV; in contrast, these elements remain entirely cartilaginous or are totally lost by resorption in postmetamorphic individuals. In addition, all postmetamorphic forms display an inverted "T"-shaped basibranchial II, whereas neotenes show transformation from a "fork"-shaped to the "T"-shaped configuration after sexual maturity. B. londongensis displays a mosaic of apomorphic and plesiomorphic states in its limb ossifications: presence of a single centrale element in both the manus and pes is a derived condition in Hynobiidae and other families as well, whereas retention of a postminimus in the pes is obviously plesiomorphic within Urodela. Reduction in number of digits from five to four in the pes and possession of a cornified sheath covering the terminal phalanges are also derived features shared with some but not all mountain stream salamanders that are adapted to a similar type of environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian-ping Jiang
- Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
| | - Jia Jia
- School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Meihua Zhang
- Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
| | - Ke-Qin Gao
- School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
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Zhou Z, Fortuny J, Marcé-Nogué J, Skutschas PP. Cranial biomechanics in basal urodeles: the Siberian salamander (Salamandrella keyserlingii) and its evolutionary and developmental implications. Sci Rep 2017; 7:10174. [PMID: 28860600 PMCID: PMC5579059 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-10553-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2017] [Accepted: 08/11/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental changes in salamander skulls, before and after metamorphosis, affect the feeding capabilities of these animals. How changes in cranial morphology and tissue properties affect the function of the skull are key to decipher the early evolutionary history of the crown-group of salamanders. Here, 3D cranial biomechanics of the adult Salamandrella keyserlingii were analyzed under different tissue properties and ossification sequences of the cranial skeleton. This helped unravel that: (a) Mechanical properties of tissues (as bone, cartilage or connective tissue) imply a consensus between the stiffness required to perform a function versus the fixation (and displacement) required with the surrounding skeletal elements. (b) Changes on the ossification pattern, producing fontanelles as a result of bone loss or failure to ossify, represent a trend toward simplification potentially helping to distribute stress through the skull, but may also imply a major destabilization of the skull. (c) Bone loss may be originated due to biomechanical optimization and potential reduction of developmental costs. (d) Hynobiids are excellent models for biomechanical reconstruction of extinct early urodeles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zupeng Zhou
- School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin, China
| | - Josep Fortuny
- Centre de Recherches en Paléobiodiversité et Paléoenvironnements, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Bâtiment de Paléontologie, CP38, 8 rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France. .,Institut Català de Paleontologia M. Crusafont. Z building, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, CP:, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Jordi Marcé-Nogué
- Centrum für Naturkunde, University of Hamburg, CP:, 20146, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Pavel P Skutschas
- Faculty of Biology, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
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Jia J, Gao KQ. A New Basal Salamandroid (Amphibia, Urodela) from the Late Jurassic of Qinglong, Hebei Province, China. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0153834. [PMID: 27144770 PMCID: PMC4856324 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153834] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2015] [Accepted: 04/02/2016] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
A new salamandroid salamander, Qinglongtriton gangouensis (gen. et sp. nov.), is named and described based on 46 fossil specimens of juveniles and adults collected from the Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) Tiaojishan Formation cropping out in Hebei Province, China. The new salamander displays several ontogenetically and taxonomically significant features, most prominently the presence of a toothed palatine, toothed coronoid, and a unique pattern of the hyobranchium in adults. Comparative study of the new salamander with previously known fossil and extant salamandroids sheds new light on the early evolution of the Salamandroidea, the most species-diverse clade in the Urodela. Cladistic analysis places the new salamander as the sister taxon to Beiyanerpeton, and the two taxa together form the basalmost clade within the Salamandroidea. Along with recently reported Beiyanerpeton from the same geological formation in the neighboring Liaoning Province, the discovery of Qinglongtriton indicates that morphological disparity had been underway for the salamandroid clade by early Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Jia
- School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Ke-Qin Gao
- School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, 100871, China
- * E-mail:
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Sheil CA, Jorgensen M, Tulenko F, Harrington S. Variation in timing of ossification affects inferred heterochrony of cranial bones in Lissamphibia. Evol Dev 2014; 16:292-305. [DOI: 10.1111/ede.12092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Michael Jorgensen
- Department of Biology; John Carroll University; University Heights OH 44118
- M172 Medical Sciences Building, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences; University of Missouri School of Medicine; Columbia MO 65212
| | - Frank Tulenko
- Department of Biology; John Carroll University; University Heights OH 44118
- Kennesaw State University; Kennesaw GA 30144
| | - Sean Harrington
- Department of Biology; John Carroll University; University Heights OH 44118
- Department of Biology; San Diego State University; San Diego CA 92182
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Abstract
A Jurassic salamander, Beiyanerpeton jianpingensis (gen. et sp. nov.), from a recently found site in western Liaoning Province, China is the earliest known record of Salamandroidea. As a Late Jurassic record of the group, it extends the range of the clade by ~40 Ma. The Late Jurassic taxon is neotenic and represented by exceptionally preserved specimens, including fully articulated cranial and postcranial skeletons and bony gill structures close to the cheek region. The fossil beds, consisting of dark-brown volcanic ash shales of the Upper Jurassic Tiaojishan (Lanqi) Formation (Oxfordian), underlie trachyandesite rocks that have yielded a SHRIMP zircon U-Pb date of 157 ± 3 Ma. The fossiliferous beds are substantially older than the Jehol Group, including the Yixian Formation ((40)Ar/(39)Ar dates of 122-129 Ma), but slightly younger than the Middle Jurassic Daohugou horizon ((40)Ar/(39)Ar date of 164 ± 4 Ma). The early fossil taxon shares with extant salamandroids derived character states, including: separated nasals lacking a midline contact, angular fused to the prearticular in the lower jaw, and double-headed ribs on the presacral vertebrae. In contrast to extant salamandroids, however, the salamander shows a discrete and tooth-bearing palatine, and unequivocally nonpedicellate and monocuspid marginal teeth in large and presumably mature individuals. The finding provides insights into the evolution of key characters of salamanders, and also provides direct evidence supporting the hypothesis that the split between Cryptobranchoidea and Salamandroidea had taken placed before the Late Jurassic Oxfordian time. In this aspect, both paleontological and molecular data now come to agree.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ke-Qin Gao
- School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
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SKUTSCHAS PAVEL, MARTIN THOMAS. Cranial anatomy of the stem salamander Kokartus honorarius (Amphibia: Caudata) from the Middle Jurassic of Kyrgyzstan. Zool J Linn Soc 2011. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00663.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Dulcey Cala CJ, Tarazona OA, Ramírez-Pinilla MP. The morphology and post-hatching development of the skull of Bolitoglossa nicefori (Caudata: Plethodontidae): developmental implications of recapitulation and repatterning. ZOOLOGY 2009; 112:227-39. [PMID: 19303748 DOI: 10.1016/j.zool.2008.09.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2008] [Revised: 09/24/2008] [Accepted: 09/26/2008] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Claudia J Dulcey Cala
- Laboratorio de Biología Reproductiva de Vertebrados, Escuela de Biología, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia
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