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Encore: New Giant Salamander Species Discovered in the Florida Panhandle

A Reticulated Siren from northwestern Florida (Okaloosa County) captured and photographed by Pierson Hill.
PIERSON HILL
A Reticulated Siren from northwestern Florida (Okaloosa County) captured and photographed by Pierson Hill.

After years of searching for what was rumored to be a giant salamander living in the swamps of the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama, a team of researchers have found it, and recently published a paper describing for the first time this entirely new species they named the reticulated siren. This giant new salamander species, which can grow up to 2 feet long, is one of the largest new species to be described in the U.S. in more than a century.

We're joined byDr. Sean Graham, Assistant Professor of Biology, Geology, & Physical Sciences at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, to learn more aboutthe reticulated siren, and the years-long search to discover it.

Copyright 2019 WGCU

Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.