The lengthy petition seeking protection for the Crater Lake newt, or Taricha granulosa mazamae, terms it “a distinct population of the rough-skinned newt widely distributed throughout the Pacific Northwest.”

“The Crater Lake newt was first formally described in the 1940s and proposed as a subspecies characterized by unusually dark ventral pigmentation, Genetic analyses of rough-skinned newts confirm that newts in Crater Lake are morphologically, genetically, and physiologically distinct from populations of newts outside of the lake … The Crater Lake newt has a rounded snout, rough skin, and is dark in color on its dorsal surfaces. The ventral surfaces have orange-yellow coloration with dark pigmentation that may have a mottled appearance, and it is this darker ventral color that most clearly distinguishes it” from other newts.

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