Living fossil, the Red Hill salamander provides link to Alabama's ancient past | al.com

Link: Living fossil, the Red Hill salamander provides link to Alabama's ancient past | al.com:

Excerpt:

"These steep bluffs and the hollows below them in central Alabama are the oldest part of the Appalachian mountains, the first bones of a range that runs north to the Canadian border.

The hills are now the subject of great scientific interest, partly due to the discovery of the Red Hills Salamander in the 1960s. The species is much older than most salamander species, and likely diverged from the main lineage of salamanders 40 or 50 million years ago. Most common salamander species, by contrast, evolved from a common ancestor within the last 10 million years."