USING A DICHOTOMOUS KEY TO IDENTIFY SALAMANDERS<\/p>\n
Contributed by Lorelei Crerar<\/p>\n
Suppose you are out at the Clifton Institute field station in Warrenton and you find a large colorful salamander while walking near a pond. Chances are the salamander has already been named and classified, but how can you learn its identity? As an aid to help others identify unknown organisms, biologists developed keys that help people classify unknown organisms. <\/p>\n
These classification keys are called dichotomous keys (the word dichotomous comes from the word dichotomy meaning \u201ctwo opposite categories\u201d). A dichotomous key presents the user with two opposite statements about some trait of an organism. By choosing one of the two statements that best describes the unknown organism, the user is lead to further pairs of statements. By going from one set of statements to another, the name of the organism or its classification group is determined. Use the dichotomous key provided on page two to identify the salamanders in Figure 1.<\/p>\n
1. Begin by reading statements 1a and 1b. One of the statements describes the salamander and the other statement does not. <\/p>\n
2. Follow the directions for the statement that describes that salamander and continue following the correct statements until you have identified it. Record the scientific and common names of the salamander in the data table below. <\/p>\n
3. Repeat step 2 for each of the other salamanders in Figure 1. <\/p>\n
Dichotomous Classification Key for Salamanders<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
a. Hind limbs absent Siren intermedia, siren<\/p>\n
b. Hind limbs present Go to 2<\/p>\n
2<\/p>\n
a. External gills present in adults Necturus maculosus, mud puppy<\/p>\n
b. External gills absent in adults Go to 3<\/p>\n
3<\/p>\n
a. Large size; over 7cm long Go to 4<\/p>\n
b. Small size; under 7cm long Go to 5<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
a. Body background black, large white spots<\/p>\n
irregular in size and shape completely<\/p>\n
covering body and tail Ambystoma tigrinum, tiger salamander<\/p>\n
b. Body background black, small round white spots<\/p>\n
in a row along each side from eye to tip of tail Ambystoma maculatum, spotted <\/p>\n
salamander<\/p>\n
5<\/p>\n
a. Body background black with white spots Go to 6<\/p>\n
b. Body background light color with dark spots or lines Go to 7<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
a. Small white spots on a black background in a<\/p>\n
row along each side of head to tip of tail Ambystoma jeffersonianum, <\/p>\n
Jefferson salamander<\/p>\n
b. Small white spots scattered throughout a black<\/p>\n
background from head to tip of tail Plethodon glutinosus, slimy salamander<\/p>\n
7<\/p>\n
a. Large irregular black spots on a <\/p>\n
light background extending<\/p>\n
from head to tip of tail Ambystoma opacum, marbled salamander<\/p>\n
b. No irregular black spots on a light background Go to 8<\/p>\n
8<\/p>\n
a. Round spots scattered along back and sides<\/p>\n
of body, tail flattened like a tadpole Triturus viridescens, newt<\/p>\n
b. Without round spots and tail not flattened Go to 9<\/p>\n
9<\/p>\n
a. Two dark lines bordering a broad light middorsal<\/p>\n
stripe with a narrow median dark line extending Eurycea bislineata,<\/p>\n
from the head onto the tail two-lined salamander<\/p>\n
b. Without two dark lines running the length of the body Go to 10<\/p>\n
10<\/p>\n
a. A light stripe running the length of the body and<\/p>\n
bordered by dark pigment extending downward on the sides Plethodon cinereus, <\/p>\n
red-backed salamander<\/p>\n
b. A light stripe extending the length of the body,<\/p>\n
a marked narrow area at the base of the tail Hemidactylium scutatum, <\/p>\n
four-toed salamander<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
\u00a9 BIOL 308 Staff \u2013 No permission is given to share, distribute or post this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
USING A DICHOTOMOUS KEY TO IDENTIFY SALAMANDERS Contributed by Lorelei Crerar Suppose you are out at the Clifton Institute field station in Warrenton and you find a large colorful salamander while walking near a pond. Chances are the salamander has already been named and classified, but how can you learn its identity? As an aid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-78586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}