Description of a species of the genus Paramesotriton (Caudata, Salamandridae) from Guizhou, China, based on morphological and genomic evidence Author Luo, Tao 0000-0003-4186-1192 School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, China & School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China & Southwest United Graduate School, Kunming, China Author Wang, Jia-Jia School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China Author Liao, Mei https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4283-6951 School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China Author Xiao, Ming-Yuan https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5555-9805 School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China Author Deng, Huai-Qing School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China Author Xiao, Ning School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China Author Zhou, Jiang 0000-0003-1560-8759 School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China text Zoosystematics and Evolution 2025 2025-10-01 101 4 1933 1947 journal article 312477 10.3897/zse.101.149144 2a52d896-dc8a-49b2-9825-f6d09d3bc917 8D40ED2F-A2AB-463F-97D3-C97884C8BE1E

Table 4. The diagnostic characters selected for the newly described species in this study and the six species of the P. caudopunctatus group follow Fei and Ye (2016). Grey shading indicates a clear difference in characteristics compared to that of P. wumengshanensis sp. nov.

Species	P. wumengshanensis sp. nov.	P. caudopunctatus	P. wulingensis	P. malipoensis	P. zhijinensis	P. longliensis	P. maolanensis
Eyes	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Reduced
Skin	Rough	Rough	Rough	Rough	Rough	Rough	Smooth
Purplish red spots on the tails of males	Absent	Present	Present	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
Lateral fringes	Absent	Wide	Wide	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
Colored stripes on dorsolateral ridges	Absent	Very distinct	Indistinct or distinct	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
Vestigial gills and gill filaments	Absent	Absent	Absent	Present	Present or Absent	Present or Absent	Absent
Anterior end of the epibranchial bone	T-shaped	T-shaped	T-shaped	T-shaped	T-shaped	T-shaped	Y-shaped
Bony plate posterior to the choana	Distinctly prominent and development	Highly reduced and indistinct	Highly reduced and indistinct	NA	Highly reduced and indistinct	Highly reduced and indistinct	Highly reduced and indistinct
Vomerine teeth	Distinct, middle protruding outward; dentition slowly compressed from posterior to anterior margin	Distinct, anterior-middle portion of the dentition is nearly parallel	Distinct, middle compressed inward; dentition rapidly compressed from posterior to anterior margin	NA	Distinct, indistinct, middle compressed inward, dentition rapidly compressed from posterior to anterior margin	Indistinct, middle compressed inward, dentition rapidly compressed from posterior to anterior margin	Distinct, middle compressed inward, dentition rapidly compressed from posterior to anterior margin