Triturus macedonicus

Triturus macedonicus, the Macedonian crested newt, is a newt species of the crested newt species complex in genus Triturus, found in the Western Balkan peninsula (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, North Macedonia, north-western Greece and south-western Bulgaria^[2]).

Triturus macedonicus
male in "mating dress"
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Urodela
Family:	Salamandridae
Genus:	Triturus
Species:	T. macedonicus
Binomial name
Triturus macedonicus (Karaman, 1922)
Synonyms[1]
Molge karelinii var. macedonica Karaman, 1922 Triturus carnifex macedonicus Arntzen and Wallis, 1999 Triturus (Triturus) macedonicus Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009 Triturus cristatus carnifex var. albanicus Dely, 1959 Triturus karelinii arntzeni Litvinchuk, Borkin, Džukić and Kalezić 1999 Triturus (Triturus) karelinii arntzeni Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009 Triturus arntzeni Espregueira Themudo, Wielstra, and Arntzen, 2009

To the North, its range borders that of the Danube crested newt and the Northern crested newt and to the East, that of the Balkan-Anatolian crested newt.

It was first described as a variety of Triturus karelinii, later considered a subspecies of Triturus carnifex, and was elevated to species rank following molecular phylogenetic analysis in 2007.^[3]

Triturus arntzeni was considered a synonym of T. macedonicus,^[4] but this name applies in fact to a hybrid between this species and the Balkan-Anatolian crested newt (T. ivanbureschi), and thus is a synonym of both species.^[5]

References

1. Frost DR. (2015). "Triturus macedonicus. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0". New York, USA: American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
2. Naumov, Borislav; Tzankov, Nikolay (2008). First record of Triturus macedonicus (Karaman, 1922) (Amphibia: Salamandridae) in Bulgaria (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-14.
3. Arntzen, J.W.; Espregueira Themudo, G.; Wielstra, B. (2007). "The phylogeny of crested newts (Triturus cristatus superspecies): nuclear and mitochondrial genetic characters suggest a hard polytomy, in line with the paleogeography of the centre of origin". Contributions to Zoology. 76 (4): 261–278. doi:10.1163/18759866-07604005. hdl:1887/3281595. ISSN 1383-4517.
4. Wielstra, B.; Litvinchuk, S. N.; Naumov, B.; Tzankov, N.; Arntzen, J. W. (2013). "A revised taxonomy of crested newts in the Triturus karelinii group (Amphibia: Caudata: Salamandridae), with the description of a new species". Zootaxa. 3682 (3): 441. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3682.3.5. hdl:1887/3281008. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 25243299.
5. Wielstra, B.; Arntzen, J. W. (2014). "Kicking Triturus arntzeni when it's down: large-scale nuclear genetic data confirm that newts from the type locality are genetically admixed". Zootaxa. 3802 (3): 381. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3802.3.7. hdl:1887/3281030. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 24871018.