This Lifedesk serves the purpose of introducing salamanders that are endemic to or have their distributions in People's Republic of China. The content will be useful for professional researchers as well as amateurish hobbyists, because we just love salamanders! The Chinese have recognized salamanders for more than 2500 years. Those animals were depicted as fishes without scales but having four legs. Shan Hai Jing mentioned that the giant salamanders live in rivers and montane streams and cry like a child. At this time there are three families, 14 genera and 58 species of Chinese salamanders. Cryptobranchidae, the giant salamanders, hold the record of the biggest extant amphibian with specimens reaching over 2 meters. They mainly distribute in the drainage areas of the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Pearl River. Hynobiidae, also called Asiatic salamanders, are the old world counterpart of the lungless salamanders from America. They occur in most provinces of China. Hynobiidae forms the sister clade to Cryptobranchidae and both families are at the basal position of the tree of life of living salamanders. The third family is Salamandridae, a more derived group that is found common in southern China. Many Chinese species in this family are popular as pets, such as the crocodile newts (Tylototriton), warty newts (Paramesotriton), stout or paddle-tailed newts (Pachytriton) and fire-bellied newts (Cynops). This website will provide detailed information on taxonomy, morphology, geographic distribution and life history of Chinese salamanders along with high-quality images. All content on the Taxon Page is shared with Salamanders of the Old World (http://science.naturalis.nl/salamanders) and will eventually also be shared with the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) and AmphibiaWeb. If you are interested in sharing images of Chinese salamanders or find something incorrect or unclear, please leave your comments, or join us by creating a New Account or emailing the administrator/owner, Yunke Wu (yunkewu@fas.harvard.edu). ... [Information of the supplier]
