Early Salamanders from Northern China

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Salamanders are one of the major groups of living amphibians. Unfortunately, very little is known about their early evolution because early salamander fossils have not been recovered. Indeed until now, only two species from the relevant time was known. We are now presented with an unusual opportunity to investigate major questions of salamander evolution and diversity. Over the past three years, we have recovered more than 800 superbly preserved salamander specimens from the earliest parts of salamander history. These sites, from northern China, contain a highly diverse and well preserved fauna of salamanders. Access to these sites has been granted and they can readily be quarried in an effort to recover even more specimens. The importance of these sites and this material lies in its age (these are among the earliest known salamanders), its abundance (hundreds of articulated skeletons can be collected from each site), its taxonomic diversity (several different families are present), its life-history diversity (many different parts of the life cycle are are all preserved), and its exceptional preservation (soft-tissue impressions are often present). Major goals of this project include: 1. to collect new fossils from and assess the relative age of the exceptional fossil-bearing units northern China, 2. to describe new fossil salamanders and revise known taxa, 3. to access the evolutionary and geographic history of fossil and Recent salamanders, and 4. to use the exquisite preservation of the new salamander material to address how morphological variation has evolved.