 | This article needs to beupdated. The reason given is: This article heavily relies on a 2004 assessment for the IUCN Red List assessing the species as vulnerable, but a more recent assessment published in 2023 assessed it as near threatened. The article should be updated to reflect the most recent assessment. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(March 2025) |
| Tennessee cave salamander | |
|---|---|
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| Specimen at theTennessee Aquarium | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Urodela |
| Family: | Plethodontidae |
| Genus: | Gyrinophilus |
| Species: | G. palleucus |
| Binomial name | |
| Gyrinophilus palleucus McCrady, 1954[3] | |
| Subspecies | |
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TheTennessee cave salamander (Gyrinophilus palleucus) is a species ofsalamander in the familyPlethodontidae,endemic to theAppalachian Mountains in the United States.[1][4] Its naturalhabitats are streams incaves. It is threatened byhabitat loss.[1]
The Tennessee cave salamander inhabits the southernCumberland Plateau in theAppalachian Mountains in the United States.[1] Its range includes south-central Tennessee, western North Carolina, northeastern Alabama, northwestern Alabama and northwestern Georgia. The salamander lives in cave systems, and is probably present in some systems as yet unexplored.[1]
The salamander's diet consists ofamphipods and other small aquatic invertebrates that live in caves. It occurs on sand, gravel, mud or rock, in streams, inrimstone pools and in isolated pools. It prefers clear water without sediment. It is occasionally seen outside caves but it is thought that this occurs when it has been accidentally washed out by floodwater.[1]
This species is usuallypaedomorphic. This means it remains in the larval state for all of its life. Paedomorphic individuals breed as larvae, but some individuals continue to develop and undergometamorphosis in the usual way.[5]
G. palleucus lives in caves and is dependent on the quality of the water in the streams that flow through them. Threats it faces include pollution, siltation, flooding, increased water flow and the filling of sinkholes and dumping of trash. This salamander is known from about two dozen sites but probably occurs in other cave systems. Its total area of occupancy is less than 2,000 km2 (800 sq mi) and its population in Custard Hollow Cave in Tennessee seems to be decreasing. For these reasons, theInternational Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as "threatened" and advocates protection of thewatersheds that drain into the caverns in which it lives.[1]
