The Korean crevice salamander is a small salamander with no lungs that breathes through its moist skin, and it is the only lungless salamander known from Asia. Its closest relatives seem to live in North America, so its discovery in South Korea in 2003 by an American science teacher came as a surprise. It lives only in Korea and isn't found in the US.
Appearance
- Appearance
- About 1.5–1.9 in (38–48 mm) from snout to vent, with a tail about as long as the body when intact. Dark overall with a broad stripe down the back that can be reddish, yellowish, tan, or dark brown, and 14–15 grooves along each side.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Forested uplands
- Limestone rockslides
- Rock crevices
- Range
- Found only on the Korean Peninsula, where it has turned up at a number of mountain sites in South Korea, mostly on limestone.
- Preferred conditions
- Lives under small stones and in crevices on damp limestone slopes in young pine and oak forest. It spends its whole life on land and, having no lungs, breathes through its moist skin.
Life cycle
- Reproduction
- Its breeding habits are still unknown because it has had little field study.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- Its genus name honors Stephen J. Karsen, a science teacher from Illinois working in Daejeon, who found it while turning over rocks in a wooded upland. He chose not to be a coauthor of the scientific paper so the researchers could name it after him.
- Its existence suggests lungless salamanders once lived across Asia and Europe 60–100 million years ago, then died out there while thriving in the Americas.
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