Mole salamanders (familyAmbystomatidae) are secretive salamanders which spend most of their adult life underground or under cover. Previously also sometimes called Amblystoma, but this has been deprecated since around the turn of the 20th century.
The genus Rhyacosiredon is sometimes used as an synonym for the Ambystoma, as in the cladistic view of the mole salamanders it makes the genus Ambystomaparaphyletic.
The genera Dicamptodon and Rhyacotriton were formerly included in this family, but are now usually placed into their own families Dicamptodontidae and Rhyacotritonidae.
External link
Tree of Life on Ambystomatidae (http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Ambystomatidae&contgroup=Caudata)
Ambystomatidae is a family of salamanders belonging to the order Caudata in the class Amphibia.
The genera Dicamptodon and Rhyacotriton were formerly included in this family, but are now usually placed into their own familiesDicamptodontidae and Rhyacotritonidae.
Recently, a large study of amphibian systematics (Frost et al., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 297 (2006) has placed Dicamptodon back within Ambystomatidae, based on cladistic analysis.
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