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The Fire Belly Newts (Cynops) is a genus of newts native to Japan and China. All of the species show brights yellow or red bellies, however this feature is not unique to this genus.
[edit] Species
[edit] Taxonomic controversy
The genus Cynops is due for a split. The Chinese species will be placed in a separate genus from the Japanese ones. The species Cynops cyanurus is at the centre of all this. There is much debate about the validity of Cynops cyanurus and Cynops chenggongensis. All the known captive animals could be something different to cyanurus as they do not entirely match the original description of the species. the only known animals that match that are animals originating from Chemnitz Zoo but the problem is that they have not been able to get the F2 animals to breed well, which could suggest that they are in fact a hybrid of cyanurus and chenggongensis or an undescribed Cynops species. There have even been suggestions that the animals thought to be cyanurus in collections is in fact chennggongensis. There is still much to be learned from this genus, and only further analysis will clear it up.
[edit] External links
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