In 2014 the New Atlas of Amphibians and Reptiles of Europe (the first update since 1997’s original atlas) was published in the journal Amphibia-Reptilia. In the new atlas, the crested newts and marbled newts were mapped as such, even though both of these two groups encompass more than one species. However, as these species are morphologically similar and, on top of that, hybridize at their poorly documented contact zones, the authors of the new atlas did not feel they could confidently map their distributions. We are working extensively on these newts and, particularly based on our recent field trips and our new Triturus Ion Torrent protocol, have accumulated enough data to allow us to map the individual species. Hence, in a follow-up paper in Amphibia-Reptilia, we published distribution maps of all the species that comprise the marbled and the crested newt groups.

This is an overview of all the European grid cells that have Triturus localities (with cells having more than one species coloured blue rather than red). Maps for the individual species are published with the paper.

Reference: Wielstra, B., Sillero, N., Vörös, J., Arntzen, J.W. (2014). The distribution of the crested and marbled newt species (Amphibia: Salamandridae: Triturus) – an addition to the New Atlas of Amphibians and Reptiles of Europe. Amphibia-Reptilia 35(3): 376 –381.

I conducted this work as a Newton International Fellow.