Abstract
New amphibian species have been constantly discovered throughout southern China, including from areas close to heavily populated cities that remain poorly surveyed for amphibian diversity. We describe a new species of the newt genus Paramesotriton from Fujian, a developed province on the southeastern coast of mainland China. The mitochondrial genealogy suggests that the new species is the sister taxon to Paramesotriton hongkongensis, separated by an uncorrected pairwise distances of 5.8% at the ND2 gene fragment analyzed. In addition to the genetic divergence, the new species can be readily differentiated from its congeners by having: a very rough skin; a continuous, orange, vertebral ridge; few warts on each side of the vertebral ridge; numerous small irregular orange-red or yellow spots on the chin, venter, underside of axillae, flanks, lateral side of the tail, base of limbs and cloaca; a small groove at the base of the vomerine tooth series; relatively long tail, relatively flat cloaca in females; normally developed eyes, and the absence of vestigial gills and gill filaments in adults.
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