{"id":246,"date":"2022-04-07T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes-2\/?segment=dwarf-salamander-search-in-the-chipola-river-flood"},"modified":"2022-04-08T12:08:57","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T16:08:57","slug":"dwarf-salamander-search-in-the-chipola-river-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/2022-04-07\/dwarf-salamander-search-in-the-chipola-river-flood\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwarf Salamander Search in the Chipola River Floodplain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-text-color\">Originally Published: November 9, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Bruce Means and his fellow researchers at Florida State University have recently discovered that what was once considered a single species of salamander was at least five species. One of the new species is the Hillis&#8217;s dwarf salamander, which is found between the Chipola and Choctawhatchee Rivers in north Florida. There, it inhabits an ecosystem known as a seepage slope.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Watching&nbsp;this field work, I\u2019m reminded of a visit to my first grade son\u2019s classroom at the beginning of the school year.&nbsp;&nbsp;Max\u2019s science teacher explained that they&nbsp;were starting their science curriculum by learning&nbsp;about the five senses as a toolkit for collecting data.&nbsp; Right now I\u2019m seeing this toolkit in action.&nbsp; Dirt under his fingernails, Bruce Means\u2019s hands and eyes are working furiously.&nbsp; &nbsp;He\u2019s tasting the water that makes this a habitable environment for the salamander.&nbsp;&nbsp;He\u2019s fully engaging his senses in the world of this animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After about an hour of searching for salamanders, Bruce Means stops to grab a drink.&nbsp;&nbsp;It\u2019s a hot summer day, and about time for some cool refreshment. &nbsp;He gets down on his hands and knees and presses his lips against the muck on the slope.&nbsp; There, cool, clean water is seeping from an underground lake, creating the ecosystem favored by the subject of our search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the Hillis\u2019s Dwarf salamander (<em>Eurycea hillisi)<\/em>, a species new to science.&nbsp; It\u2019s here somewhere under the sphagnum moss&nbsp;carpeting a seepage slope by the Chipola River.&nbsp; Dr. Means is showing us some of the work that went into the discovery of the species.&nbsp; His hands are in the muck, plucking bits of sphagnum off the slope as his eyes scan for tiny fleeing critters.&nbsp; As he works,&nbsp;spiders and insects&nbsp;are crawling all over him. (Check that spider spinning a web off him at 01:29).<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.wfsu.org\/blog-coastal-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/drinking-seepage-cropped.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-light-green-cyan-background-color has-background\">Click here to read more about the Dwarf Salmander on the WFSU Ecology Blog<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-10606\">\u201cYou never have to go thirsty here.\u201d Dr. Means says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally Published: November 9, 2017 Bruce Means and his fellow researchers at Florida State University have recently discovered that what was once considered a single species of salamander was at least five species. One of the new species is the Hillis&#8217;s dwarf salamander, which is found between the Chipola and Choctawhatchee Rivers in north Florida. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[136],"tags":[54,89,52,163,86],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dwarf Salamander Search in the Chipola River Floodplain - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We take an eye level look at the habitat of the Hillis\u2019s dwarf salamander, a species new to science. Our guide is Dr. Bruce Means.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/2022-04-07\/dwarf-salamander-search-in-the-chipola-river-flood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dwarf Salamander Search in the Chipola River Floodplain - WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We take an eye level look at the habitat of the Hillis\u2019s dwarf salamander, a species new to science. 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