Taricha

The genus Taricha consists of four species of highly toxic newts in the family Salamandridae. Their common name is Pacific newts, sometimes also western newts or roughskin newts. The four species within this genus are the California newt, the rough-skinned newt, the red-bellied newt, and the Sierra newt, all of which are found on the Pacific coastal region from southern Alaska to southern California, with one species possibly ranging into northern Baja California, Mexico.

Taricha

Connor Long · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
Roughskin newtsPBDB
Sits inside
SalamandridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 210 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesOligocene — about 6 of 11 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 11 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.2–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences27.3 Mya210 ka34.6 Mya0 Mya

11 occurrences of Taricha on record, most of them in the Oligocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

11 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

7 formations

Mehama — 44.03°N, 123.00°WMehama — 44.52°N, 122.94°WJohn Day — 44.30°N, 120.83°WJohn Day — 45.00°N, 120.20°WSan Antonio — 37.75°N, 122.13°WRenova — 46.65°N, 113.05°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WOhanapecosh — 45.86°N, 122.21°W

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The named rock units Taricha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Taricha and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Taricha and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

256 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Taricha, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

7 references

Each of the 11 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Taricha

Credit
Connor Long
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Taricha was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSalamandridae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1850