This paper presents the first comprehensive phylogenetic reconstruction of Desmognathus with range-wide sampling and all species (>500 samples). These salamanders are nondescript morphologically and there was no easy way to know where to make samples. Since duskies are small and are not capable of making long distance movements, I hypothesized that the ecological and historical forces shaping river drainages and level iv ecroegions might play a role in shaping the diversification of dusky salamanders. Without knowing which of these units might have played important roles in salamander evolutionary history I attempted to sample them all! This resulted in the discovery of several new lineages and helped refine the known distribution of several poorly known lineages.
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