Customer Reviews

Salamanders of the United States and Canada

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is destined to become one of the great classics in American Natural History. Dr. Petranka describes every species of salamander in exhaustive detail. His photographs and physical descriptions should enable even a novice to correctly identify every specimen. The accurate range maps make identification even easier. I especially enjoyed the habitat and ecological data provided for each species. Good stuff.

This is a great gift book for birdwatchers. It will broaden their horizons by forcing them to look down for a change.

Comment: The current trend in taxonomy is to split species rather than to lump them. Often this splitting is based on esoteric DNA differentiation. Fifteen years from now, the "lumpers" (me) will regain ascendency and a number of currently valid species will be relegated to varieties. The text follows the current splitting trend, but it does include a discussion of each species taxonomy and its relationships to closely related species.

Minor quibble: The photography is excellent. Beyond excellent. I only wish the editors had allowed for larger images and more of them, but that would have jacked up the price. I guess that sixty bucks is the perceived limit for this type of book. But salamanders are beautiful little animals that deserve better.

Buy this book. Read it. Then go out into the woods and turn over a few logs. Then put them back.

Petranka provides a masterful summary of our current state of knowledge about the taxonomy, natural history, ecology, and behavior of North American salamanders. No other work comes close to matching the depth of coverage of this book. It is no surprise that this work received the Wildlife Society's prestigious Book of the Year Award.

As a keeper and breeder of rare Asian and American salamanders I'm very happy with the arrival of this book. It's so far the most comprehensive & complete work on life environments & ecology of American Urodela species I read. It truly helps us/me overhere to install the animals in a natural urodarium, keeping them as close to nature as possible. A similar older standard book by E. R. Dunn was more of scientifical nature. The only thing that comes close to it concerns Pfingstens book on Ohio Salamanders. I'm sure this book will become a future standardwork in this peticular field. It's already famous in the midst of Belgian, German and Dutch urodela circles. If only this excisted for Asian species too.

I strongly disagree with the one star review of this book. The taxonomy in this book is not the least bit out of date. The fact is there is no taxonomy for salamanders that is agreed on by all herpetologists. In this book Petranka offers his reasons for the taxonomy that he has accepted. He mentions species that he doesn't recognize that others do, and he explains precisely why he doesn't recognize them. Likewise, there are species that he accepts that some others do not, but again, he explains why. I wouldn't necessarily consider Petranka a splitter. In some cases he splits species that I had no idea could be split i.e. Mountain Dusky Salamander. There are, however, other species that are commonly split that he doesn't split, for example the Slimy Salamander. Whether you agree with his classification or not, he at least backs it up with facts about interbreeding and/or genetic evidence, and informs you of the taxonomies that others recognize. This is the authoritative work on North American Salamanders. If you're thinking about buying this book, then you should definitely buy it.

As a keeper and breeder of rare Asian and American salamanders I'm very happy with the arrival of this book. It's so far the most comprehensive & complete work on life environments & ecology of American Urodela species I read. It truly helps us/me overhere to install the animals in a natural urodarium, keeping them as close to nature as possible. A similar older standard book by E. R. Dunn was more of scientifical nature. The only thing that comes close to it concerns Pfingstens book on Ohio Salamanders. I'm sure this book will become a future standardwork in this peticular field. It's already famous in the midst of Belgian, German and Dutch urodela circles. If only this excisted for Asian species too.

This is still, to my knowledge, the only complete handbook to North American species of salamanders since the 1943 classic Handbook by Sherman C. Bishop. It has all the latest scientific findings in the species accounts (as of the late 90s, but still quite up-to-date in most respects), as well as good photos of each species and a section with beautiful color plates. This book therefore has what it takes to satisfy both amateur naturalists and professional herpetologists who need a reference to these fascinating creatures. For amateur naturalists like this reviewer, a book like this can help instill a sense of wonder at the unexpected variety of colorful fauna that lurks beneath logs and rocks in our woodlands, and helps to explain the unique survival strategies of each species.

It is true that since the publication of this book, a lot of taxonomic changes have continued to occur, especially the discovery of many new cryptic species based on genetic analysis, as well as, apparently, the upgrading of almost every subspecies to the species level. (By way of example, when this book was written, the slimy salamander complex had already been split into 13 different species, and this was about to happen but had not yet occurred with the Appalachian woodland salamanders.) In my humble opinion, this trend does not necessarily always express the relationships of different forms in the clearest way, since some forms may be closer to the full species level than others and nature, being the irrepressible creative force that it is, does not always neatly conform to our precise notion of the species concept. The author of this book seems to feel that way himself in many instances and disagrees with some of the new revisions, for reasons that he clearly explains. Personally I, too, am rather baffled as to why two populations that look exactly the same and can only be distinguished in the lab would be considered to be completely different species; it seems to defy common sense! Nevertheless, if the current splitting trend has an upside, it may be that with more populations being recognized as distinct species, better protection might be given to those that require it.

In summary, this book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in these obscure but fascinating creatures and how they fit into our natural world.

This is a great book for Salamander lovers, like myself. Petranka provides well gathered information and writes it out on paper well. I would not change a thing. I am a student and have used this on all my papers and Reports. i has given me well grades and it provides excellent information. i Rate it 5 stars. So give it a try! Then go out and turn over a few logs youll love what you see!

Overall I think this is a great resource, compiling tons of great data from thousands of published papers. However, as a young amateur herpetologist I have already found a few minor issues with this book. Two that I can think of of the top of my head have to do with the larval key/identification being inaccurate in some cases (larval Pseudotriton ruber keying out as P. montanus and larval Ambystoma opacum keying out as A. talpoideum). I understand how hard it is to make a key for larval amphibians, but it makes me wonder how much of the rest of the key may be misleading as well.

There are also a few things I would change about the book including 1) a "similar species" section where the author gives tips about how to discriminate between similar species (e.g. Desmognathus). 2) Changing the format so it is easier to find the specific information you are looking for, like the way Lannoo did his Amphibian Declines book. 3) Putting the photos on the same page as the species info 4) adding more photos especially for variable species and photos that show distinctive ID characters, plus to me photos are one the most important aspects of a guide book.

As I said in the first sentence, this is an excellent resource, I gave it 4/5 rating (would have given it 4.5 if given the option). At the same time I see ways that this guide could be improved for the future editor/reviser/author of the next edition.

To put it very simply this is THE current standard for caudate identification in North America. Whether you are an amateur or professional herpetologist, this book is a must have on your bookshelf.
127 species, beautiful color plates, and information specifically written for identification and sexing of indigenous caudates in North America.

Good photographs and maps. Text okay. Taxonomy is completely out of date and common names are the tongue-twisters used earlier in the last century (instead of standardized common names, which have been adopted nationwide since 1978). These errors make the book difficult to use. Publishers should have sent it out for review by a younger generation of herpetologists before approving it. Not recommended.