Ensatina facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ensatina |
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| Monterey Ensatina | |
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Ensatina
Gray, 1850
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E. eschscholtzii
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The Ensatina is a type of lungless salamander. These amazing creatures are actually a group of different subspecies, all part of the Ensatina eschscholtzii family. You can find them living in forests across British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, and even down into Baja California, Mexico.
What is a Ring Species?
The Ensatina salamander is a great example of something called a ring species. Imagine a horseshoe shape around the mountains of California's Central Valley. The different kinds of Ensatina salamanders live all around this horseshoe.
Even though there are 19 different groups of these salamanders, they can usually interbreed with their neighbors. This means they can have babies together. However, the salamanders at one end of the horseshoe, like the Ensatina eschscholtzii on the western side, cannot interbreed with the Ensatina klauberi at the eastern end. Even though they are connected by a chain of interbreeding populations, the two ends act like different species.
Scientists like Dobzhansky have studied Ensatina to understand how new species form. It shows almost every step of this process. Some scientists, like Richard Highton, even argue that Ensatina should be seen as many different species, not just one big group.
Types of Ensatina Subspecies
Here are some of the known subspecies of Ensatina eschscholtzii:
- Yellow Blotched Ensatina — E. e. croceater
- Monterey Ensatina — E. e. eschscholtzii
- Large Blotched Ensatina — E. e. klauberi
- Oregon Ensatina — E. e. oregonensis
- Painted Ensatina — E. e. picta
- Sierra Nevada Ensatina — E. e. platensis
- Yellow Eyed Ensatina — E. e. xanthoptica
Images for kids
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Ensatina eschscholtzii klauberi, the large-blotched ensatina
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E. eschscholtzii eschscholtzi, the Monterey ensatina
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E. e. platensis from Fresno County, California
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See also
In Spanish: Ensatina eschscholtzii para niños
