Lyciasalamandra

Macaluso, Loredana, Wencker, Lukardis C M, Castrovilli, Maria, Carnevale, Giorgio & Delfino, Massimo, 2023, A comparative atlas of selected skeletal elements of European urodeles (Amphibia: Urodela) for palaeontological investigations, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 197 (3), pp. 569-619 : 595

LYCIASALAMANDRA VEITH & STEINFARTZ, 2004

Species: Lyciasalamandra luschani (Steindachner, 1891) and Lyciasalamandra helverseni (Pieper, 1963) .

No specimen of this genus was available for study, but a few observations can be made based on the work of Özeti (1967), who compared Mertensiella luschani (now Lyciasalamandra luschani ) with M. caucasica and Sa. salamandra . According to Özeti (1967), the otic–occipitum complex of Lyciasalamandra more closely resembles that of M. caucasica than that of Sa. salamandra , in having the prominentiae semicircularis anterioris and posterioris more visible on the dorsal surface than in the last species. Also, Özeti (1967) stated that ‘the anterior part of the otic capsule appears strongly displaced laterally in Sa. salamandra ’, but not in the other species, and described the fenestra ovalis as more ventral in Ly. luschani than in Salamandra . The atlas is described as short and posteriorly widened, with an aliform projection (herein inferior crests) on each side of the centrum. The general shape of this vertebra is similar to that of M. caucasica . The general shape of the vertebrae of Ly. luschani seems to appear similar to those of Sa. salamandra and M. caucasica , but slightly wider and with a lower neural crest in Ly. luschani . The vertebrae of M. caucasica are described by Özeti (1967) as more slender and with smaller processes than in the other two species.