Scientists Discover New Species Of Lungless Salamander In Korea - Reuters

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LONDON - "A new species of salamander has been discovered under rocks in South Korea but scientists said on Wednesday they don't know how it got there.

The lungless salamander, which breathes through moist skin and lays its eggs on land, is typically found in North and South America and has some distant relatives in Italy and Sardinia. But scientists had never expected to find one in Korea because it split from its aquatic cousins, which are common there, at least 175 million years ago.

"I've discovered and named nearly 50 species of salamanders -- more than 10 percent of the total in the world. I've discovered new genera in Guatemala and Costa Rica. But this tops everything I've ever found by a long ways," said David Wake, an expert on amphibians at the University of California, Berkeley. "It's so utterly unexpected, so completely unexpected."

Wake reported the unusual discovery, after examining the creature, in the science journal Nature, but it was actually found two years ago by Stephen Karsen, a biologist from Illinois who teaches in South Korea."

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