Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What exactly is the difference between salamanders and newts.. haven't dealt with much.. I have an idea but wanna be sure..

Newts are a type of salamander (like sea turtles are a type of turtle). They generally have rough skin while other salamanders have slimy skin. As far as I'm aware, all newts have lungs while some other groups of salamander do not. Newts also lack something called "costal grooves" which seems to be the best distinction I can think of. Costal grooves are these things:

http://www.uvm.edu/~kvbriggs/js/images/terms.html#costal

'preciate it.. I was thinkin it was just newts stayed mostly in water and salamanders mostly on land..

in some places you might be able to generalize like that but where I live that doesn't hold up at all. Our one newt spends half it's life in water and half it's life completely terrestrial. Half of our true salamanders hang out on land most of the year while the other half don't stray more than a meter from water ever.

Alright I Appreciate it..

A "newt" is just a common name for salamanders of the family 'Salamandridrae.' They often have dry, rough skin, when terrestrial. However, many have aquatic forms with smooth skin.