Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Turin, Italy.
Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, Barcelona, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2021 Nov 12;11(1):22139. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01492-z.
The two extant Salamandrina species represent a unique case of morphology, ecology, and ethology among urodeles. The range of this genus is currently limited to Italy, where it represents the only endemic vertebrate genus, but its past range extended over a much broader area of Europe, including the Iberian and Balkan peninsulas. ENM analyses using modern occurrences of Salamandrina demonstrate that the current climate of the majority of Europe, and especially areas where fossils of this genus were found, is currently not suitable for this genus, neither was it suitable during the last 3.3 million years. This result allows possible assumptions about the climatic influence on the former extirpation of this salamander from several areas of Europe. Furthermore, it shows that, during Pliocene-Pleistocene climatic oscillations, Mediterranean peninsulas, despite being generally considered together because of similar latitude, had different potential to effectively become glacial refugia for this salamander, and possibly for other species as well. Future projections using different CO emission scenarios predict that climatic suitability will be even more drastically reduced during the next 50 years, underlining once more the importance of conservation strategies and emission-reducing policies.
现存的两种蝾螈物种代表了有尾目动物在形态、生态和行为方面的独特案例。这个属的分布范围目前仅限于意大利，它是那里唯一的特有脊椎动物属，但它过去的分布范围要广泛得多，包括伊比利亚半岛和巴尔干半岛。使用现代蝾螈的分布进行的生态位模型分析表明，欧洲大部分地区的气候，特别是发现该属化石的地区，目前不适合这个属，在过去的 330 万年里也不适合。这一结果使人们有可能对气候对这种蝾螈从前从欧洲几个地区灭绝的影响做出假设。此外，它表明，在更新世-全新世气候振荡期间，尽管由于纬度相似而通常被一起考虑，但地中海半岛在地中海半岛有不同的潜力成为这种蝾螈的有效冰川避难所，可能也成为其他物种的避难所。使用不同 CO2排放情景的未来预测表明，在未来 50 年内，气候适宜性将进一步大幅下降，再次强调了保护策略和减排政策的重要性。
