ABR: Systematics of Salamanders of Western North America andTropical America

这是一项继续和扩大正在进行的关于美国西部和中美洲蝾螈系统分类学的工作的建议。研究的重点是该物种的形态和遗传变异。主要的形态学主题是蝾螈大脑的发育和比较结构，它们使用极快和远的舌头捕捉猎物。对该生物其他部位的比较解剖学研究也将进行。蛋白质和核酸变异将在许多物种中进行研究。这项研究的长期目标是确定这些地区有多少种蝾螈，并确定它们之间的系统发育关系模式，因为它们对我们对生态学和地球历史的理解很重要。

This is a proposal to continue and extend work in progress on the systematics of salamanders from the western United States and from Middle America. The main emphasis of the study is the morphology and genetic variation of the species. The main morphological topic is the development and comparative structure of the brains of salamanders that use extreme fast and far- reaching tongues to capture prey. Comparative anatomical studies of other parts of the organism will also be conducted. Both protein and nucleic acid variation will be studied in a number of species. A long range goal of this study is to determine how many species of salamanders there are in these regions, and to determine the patterns of phylogenetic relationships among them, as they are important to our understanding of ecology and earth history.