Discovered the world's largest amphibian

A giant salamander once lived in the London Zoo and was later on display at the Natural History Museum representing a new species that may be the world's largest amphibian.

This discovery is part of a larger discovery of the diversity of the giant Chinese salamander, which in turn helps to branch out 3 species of salamander from one species as before. A detailed study of new salamander species was published Monday in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

Giant salamander once lived across central, southern and eastern China.Andrias davidianus, called the giant Chinese salamander, reaches 1.1m in length and weighs nearly 50kg, but its population in the wild is declining in numbers.

Giant salamander.

Scientists studied 17 specimens from museums and tissue samples from wild salamander and discovered Andria sligoi, the giant salamander of South China - although the specimen remained in a museum for the entire 74 years year.

In the 1920s and 30s, while the salamander was still alive, it was kept at the Zoo of the Zoological Society of London for 20 years. At that time, it was considered an unusual salamander and not a new species.

The new study confirms it to be different from its "relatives" and represents the world's largest amphibian of 8,000 species and can be as long as 1.8 meters.

The scientists also divided giant salamander species into three species: davidianus, sligoi and a third unnamed species. This third species is only known from tissue samples.

Each of the discovered species is unique to a different river system or mountain range in China and they are genetically different.

"Our analysis shows that giant Chinese salamander species diverged from 3.1 to 2.4 million years ago," said Samuel Turvey, principal research author of the Zoological Institute of Zoological Institute. London physiology, said. "This corresponds to the period of mountain formation in China when the Tibetan Plateau moved, which could isolate huge salamander populations and lead to the evolution of different species in different landscapes." .

Historically, giant salamander has been used for medical and food purposes in southern China, according to research.

"The decline in the number of wild Chinese giant salamander is catastrophic, mainly due to the recent overfishing due to food demand , " Mr. Turvey said. "We hope that a new understanding of their species diversity can help conserve this species."

The giant Chinese salamander has been listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Nature Conservation. Overfishing and farming have led to salamander being found only in 4 out of 97 locations across China. The salamanders are often shipped to farms as well as for conservation reasons.

The London Zoo is home to four giant salamanders, after authorities discovered they had been smuggled to Britain since 2016.