CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There aren’t many opportunities to find a new species. However, there are folks in the field of biology who are looking for such things every day. The slow process typically becomes an exercise in finding differences in certain members of a particular existing species and proving they are different enough to become their own in a stand alone category. That is exactly what has happened with the Yellow Spotted Woodland Salamander in West Virginia and neighboring states.
This tiny creature was determined to be in a class all by itself.
“It is a newly described or recently described salamander species that occurs in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Virginia. It’s a species we’re trying to get more information on,” said Kevin Oxenrider, Leader of the Division of Natural Resources Amphibian and Invertebrates programs.
The salamander is coal black with the exception of some bright yellow spots. It occurs in the Mountain State in places like the New River Gorge and across the southern coalfields. For many years it was often thought to be a Wehrlei Salamander. But that changed with the persistence of a professor and researcher at Marshall University.
“It’s named after Dr. Thomas Pauley who has emeritus status at Marshall now. Dr. Pauley is known as the father of herpetology in West Virginia. He literally wrote the book on it. For all of his dedicated work, he was one of the people who pointed out this particular salamander had a more dusky look than the yellow spotted Wehrlei. When they described it, they named it after him,” Oxenrider explained.
The official name of the new creature is “Plethodon Pauleyi.” While considered “new” and “recent” in terms of species determination, the distinction was made in 2016. Ever since, Oxenrider and his team have been trying to catch up with all of the information they can gather on a new animal for which they have responsibility.
“We didn’t have a lot of information, so we’re trying to determine where it’s distributed across the state and its current status,” he said.
DNR is teaming up with a number of state and federal agencies to get such information like the US Forest Service and National Park Service.
Some genetic work has shown the differences in the two biologically, but Kevin said it’s very clear when you look at the Yellow Spotted creatures you can tell they look different and they act different in their lifestyle.
“They’re using rock crevices where the Wehrle Salamander use the forest floor or rocks on the ground and not rock faces. There are just some interesting differences, and I’m still a little shocked people didn’t pick up on it faster,” he said.
It’s unknown if the new salamander is abundant or rare and that’s one of the questions teams want to answer while looking at the newly described species.