Skull and lower jaw osteology of the Lanza's salamander, Salamandra lanzai (Amphibia, Caudata).

The Lanza’s Salamander, Salamandra lanzai, an endemism of the Italian and French slopes of the south-western Alps, was described on the basis of molecular and external morphological data. The species is similar in colouration and life history to the Alpine salamander, S. atra, but phylogenetic studies showed that it is more closely related to S. corsica, and thus these similarities are mostly due to evolutionary convergence. In order to provide a comparative basis for systematic, phylogenetic and palaeontological researches concerning the genus Salamandra, here we report a description of the skull and lower jaw morphology in S. lanzai that were studied on the basis of skeletonized, disarticulated dry preserved specimens as well as by X-ray microtomography of wet preserved specimens. The skull is about as long as wide, relatively depressed and ather flat dorsally. The skull roof represents 28 to 32 % of the skull width measured at the level of the posterior tip of the processus maxillaris posterior. The number of tooth positions varies from 21 to 29 in the premaxilla, from 28 to 47 in the maxilla, from 42 to 62 in the vomer, and from 56 to 69 in the dentary. The frontosquamosal arch is absent. The bone-by-bone description here reported represents the first attempt of providing detailed morphological information on the skull morphology of a member of genus Salamandra as well as a starting basis for including osteological information in the analysis of the phylogenetic relationships within this clade.