Ambystoma laterale
Hallowell, 1856 · speciesAt a glance
Sources11 archives
Databases and archives Ambystoma laterale's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation8 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility11 458 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI3 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics28 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
Tree of SexTree of Sex Consortiumgenome & karyotype↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
Amphibian Species of the WorldAMNHamphibian catalog↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The silvery salamander (Ambystoma platineum) is a hybrid species of mole salamander from the United States of America and Canada. It is usually between 5.5 – 7.75 in (12 – 19.9 cm) long and is slender with many small silvery-blue spots on its back and sides. It is brownish grey and the area around its vent is grey. This unisexual Ambystoma hybrid species,Unisexual Salamander Complexes has been grouped with other unisexual ambystomatids that takes genetic material from Jefferson salamander (A. jeffersonianum), streamside salamander (A. barbouri), small-mouthed salamander (A. texanum), tiger salamander (A. tigrinum) and the blue-spotted salamander (A. laterale). "Species name designations for unisexual Ambystoma are no longer in use".Pfingsten et al. 2013 Instead, unisexual Ambystoma are now considered distinct biotypes rather than species.Pfingsten et al. 2013
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology1
Life cycle & reproduction6
Habitat & environment4
Other traits1
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Ambystoma laterale has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Ambystoma laterale carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 282×GoaT · Amphibian Karyotype Database · GoaT · Animal Genome Size Database
2n 422×GoaT · Amphibian Karyotype Database
2n 561×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database
2n 841×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database
triploid3×GoaT · Amphibian Karyotype Database · TreeOfSex · vert
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type11 458 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions15 of 26 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 1 232 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 681 |
| Toronto, CA | 530 |
| Saint John, CA | 192 |
| Washington, US | 52 |
| Cambridge, US | 47 |
| Tempe, US | 35 |
| Berkeley, US | 29 |
| New Haven, US | 24 |
| Meguro Parasitological Museumlocation not on record | 23 |
| Chongqing Museumlocation not on record | 18 |
| Texas Memorial Museum, Texas Natural History Collectionlocation not on record | 13 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 10 |
| Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural Historylocation not on record | 8 |
| University of Nebraska State Museumlocation not on record | 6 |
| Provo, US | 5 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 4 |
| Los Angeles, US | 4 |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 4 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 4 |
| Canadian Museum of Naturelocation not on record | 3 |
| EL PASO, US | 2 |
| Universidad Católica de Manizaleslocation not on record | 2 |
| Philadelphia, US | 1 |
| Ohio State University - Amphibian Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 1 |
| München, DE | 1 |
Where the DNA of Ambystoma laterale was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.