Holbrook's southern dusky salamander
Holbrook's southern dusky salamander (Desmognathus auriculatus), previously known as just the southern dusky salamander, is a species of salamander endemic to the southeastern United States. Older sources often refer to it as the eared triton. Formerly abundant, it has precipitously declined since the 1960s. Taxonomy As previously defined as the southern dusky salamander, it was thought to range from southern Virginia south to Florida, and west to Texas. However, a 2008 study found D. auriculatus as previously defined to be polyphyletic, with many populations being assigned to this species on the basis of similar morphology; for example, Texas populations were found to belong to the spotted dusky salamander (D. conanti). Several other populations assigned to this species were found to be northern dusky salamander (D. fuscus), D. conanti, or undescribed species. In 2017, one of these species was described as Valentine's southern dusky salamander (D. valentinei). A 2020 study identified three distinct mito-nuclear lineages that likely represented distinct species: D. auriculatus A (D. auriculatus sensu stricto), D. auriculatus B, and D. auriculatus C. It was described by John Edwards Holbrook and renamed after him in 2017 to distinguish it from D. valentinei. Desmognathus fuscus carri was a subspecies of the