Chinese Little Salamander
[Animal Introduction]:
Chinese Little Salamander (scientific name: Hynobius chinensishml9) is an animal of the genus of the family genus . The total length is 165-205 mm, and the tail length is about 85% of the head and body length. The head is larger, the head is longer than the head wide; the kiss end is round, there are no lip folds; there are no fontanelle. The trunk is short and thick, the base of the tail is slightly round, gradually flattening backward to the tail end, without dorsal, ventral fin folds or very weak, and some individuals have blade-shaped tail ends. The skin on the back of the body is smooth, there is a longitudinal skin groove behind the eyes to the neck folds, there is a "∨"-shaped ridge at the top of the head, with 11-12 rib grooves, and the left and right rib grooves meet at the midline of the abdomen. The limbs are thick and when the front and rear limbs are close to each other, the fingers and toes overlap between 2-3 rib grooves; there is no black stratum corneum in the palm and soleus, and there is no palmar process or plantar process; there is 4 fingers in the forefoot, 5 toes in the hind foot, and the fifth toe is short. The back of the body tail is almost the same black or brown-black, with a few individuals having 1-2 yellow spots; the ventral surface is light brown, with marble black-brown spots. The eggs are yellow. Chinese small salamanders live in mountainous areas with an altitude of 1,400-1,500 meters, and adult salamanders mostly live in secondary forests, weeds and shrubs with lush vegetation near the ponds in the mountains. The adult salamander lives on land. Rely on the lungs and moist skin to exchange air for breathing, generally live close to water sources, feeding on moss or arthropod larvae. Exclusive to China, it is definitely distributed in central and western Yichang, Hubei. There have been reports of collection in Chong'an, Fujian and Wenling, Zhejiang in the 1930s.
[History of Zoology]
Chinese Little Salamander is an ancient species 300 million years ago, and is in the same era of development as dinosaurs. In 1889, a foreigner, Günther, first discovered it in Xuanchang, Hubei. It was named "Chinese Little Salamander". It is a precious "living fossil of biological diseases" and is known as the "golden key" to study the evolutionary history of paleontology. The Chinese Little Salamander was named after the No. 2 specimen in Yichang City, Hubei Province in 1889. No new specimens were found for more than 100 years. Until 2005, Wang Xi and others discovered new specimens of this species in the model specimen origin. Through redescribing the morphological characteristics of the new specimen, it pointed out that the No. 2 specimen described by Günther in 1889 is a subadult of the Chinese Little Salamander. During these 116 years (as of 2005), there have been many reports on Chinese squids and their similarities and different names. Pope records that the small salamander in Wuyishan, Fujian is a Chinese small salamander. According to this view, Zeng Xiaomao and Cai Chunmao et al. conducted relevant research on their karyotype and embryonic development; Fei Liang et al. predicted that it may be a new species based on the characteristics of the egg bag specimen in Wuyishan, but since no adults have been found, its classification status is difficult to determine, so it is temporarily retained as a Chinese small salamander in "Chinese Animal Chronicles·Ambulatory Class (Volume 1)";
[Montal Characteristics]:
total length is 165-205 mm, and the tail length is about 85% of the head body length. The head is larger, the head is longer than the wider; the snout end is round and there are no lip folds; there is no fontanelle, extending to the back end to the middle of the eyeball, there are 11-15 teeth in the inner branches, and 6-9 teeth in the outer branches, and the midlines of the left and right inner posterior ends are connected or close to each other. The trunk is short and thick, the base of the tail is slightly round, gradually flattening backward to the tail end, without dorsal, ventral fin folds or very weak, and some individuals have blade-shaped tail ends. The skin on the back of the body is smooth, there is a longitudinal skin groove behind the eyes to the neck folds, there is a "∨"-shaped ridge at the top of the head, with 11-12 rib grooves, and the left and right rib grooves meet at the midline of the abdomen; the ventral surface of the head is smooth, and the cervical folds are not obvious or slightly obvious. The limbs are thick and when the front and rear limbs are close to each other, the fingers and toes overlap between 2-3 rib grooves; there is no black stratum corneum in the palm and soleus, and there is no palmar process or plantar process; there is 4 fingers in the forefoot, 5 toes in the hind foot, and the fifth toe is short. The back of the body tail is almost the same black or brown-black, with a few individuals having 1-2 yellow spots; the ventral surface is light brown, with marble black-brown spots. The eggs are yellow.
[Living habits]:
Chinese small salamander lives in mountainous areas with an altitude of 1400-1500 meters. The adult salamander is mostly in secondary forests, weeds and shrubs with lush vegetation near the ponds in the mountains. The adult salamander lives on land. Rely on the lungs and moist skin to exchange air for breathing, generally live close to water sources, and feed on moss or arthropod larvae.
[Distribution range]:
endemic to China, determined to be distributed in central and western Yichang, Hubei. There have been reports collected in Chong'an, Fujian and Wenling, Zhejiang in the 1930s; there are reports that have been found in Yiwu, Zhejiang, Xiaoshan , Zhenhai , Zhoushan and other places; since there are still large differences in the identification of morphology of Chinese sausages, their geographical distribution has not been accurately counted.
[Reproduction method]:
In November and December each year, they will mating and laying eggs in the pond. The egg bags sink in pairs to the bottom of the water, forming a "C" shape. The egg bags are about 250 mm long and have a diameter of about 100 mm. Each pair of egg bags contains 60-80 eggs. The water quality of the breeding waters is clear, the pH is 7, the pond water depth is 5-30 cm, and the egg bags are mostly produced at a water depth of about 10 cm. The egg clusters were hatched and kept indoors for four months, with a total length of sub-adults being about 55 mm.
[Conservation Level]:
is included in the "Hong Kong Red List of Endangered Species of the World Union for Conservation of Nature" (IUCN 2004 ver 3.1) - Endangered (EN).
is included in the "Red List of Biodiversity in China - Vertebrate Volume" - Endangered (EN).
was included in the "List of Terrestrial Wildlife Protected Benefitable or Important Economic and Scientific Research Value of National Protection" issued by the State Forestry Administration on August 1, 2000.
In February 2021, the newly adjusted " National Key Protected Wildlife List " was announced, and the Chinese Little Salamander was upgraded to the national first level.
