Head to head
Van Dyke's Salamander vs Dunn's Salamander
Van Dyke's salamander and Dunn's salamander both occupy a narrow strip of the Pacific coastal mountains, close enough in range and habits that the two are easy to confuse, yet each holds to its own particular stretch of coastline and its own particular relationship with water.
| Van Dyke's Salamander | Dunn's Salamander | |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Plethodon vandykei | Plethodon dunni |
| Range | Washington state, Olympic Peninsula | Oregon and northern California |
| Key habitat | Waterfall splash zones, seepages | Immediate stream and seepage edges |
| Larval stage | None, direct development | None, direct development |
| Named after | Naturalist Edmund Van Dyke | Herpetologist Emmett Reid Dunn |
| Habitat sensitivity | High, narrow microclimate needs | High, tied closely to stream edges |
| Genus | Plethodon | Plethodon |
| Conservation status | Near Threatened | Least Concern |
Van Dyke's Salamander vs Dunn's Salamander: common questions
Do Van Dyke's salamander and Dunn's salamander live in the same place?
Not quite — Van Dyke's salamander is concentrated in the Olympic Peninsula and nearby parts of Washington state, while Dunn's salamander occupies a range further south across the coastal mountain ranges of Oregon and into northern California, meaning the two species' ranges sit close together geographically without significantly overlapping.
Which of these two salamanders stays closest to water?
Dunn's salamander stays unusually close to the immediate edge of streams and seepages even by the standards of its own genus, sheltering directly beneath rocks and logs right at the water's margin, while Van Dyke's salamander is more specifically tied to waterfall splash zones and seepages within its own narrower Olympic Peninsula range.
Do either of these salamanders have an aquatic larval stage?
No, despite their close ties to water, both Van Dyke's salamander and Dunn's salamander undergo direct development with no free-living aquatic larval stage at all, hatching directly into a miniature terrestrial form rather than passing through a swimming, gilled larval phase.