For her doctoral dissertation, Yale’s Nathalie Alomar decided to study a small amphibian that appeared to have eluded the forces of evolution.

She found that there is more to its evolution than meets the eye. 

In a new study, Alomar and a team of scientists report that the story of the common woodland salamander — long considered a classic example of “evolutionary stasis,” meaning that it has evolved into many species without changing its overall structure much at all — is more complicated than previously believed. 

For the research, the team collected nearly 300 individual woodland salamanders — which are from the genus Plethodon, and ubiquitous in forests of the eastern United States — representing 30 distinct species. And while these animals looked quite similar, a subsequent laboratory analysis found that aspects of their physiology differed substantially.

A new review of the behaviors of animals who engage in interspecies cooperation, a type of behavior where animals from different species work together for mutual benefit, shows that the information exchanged through cues and signals play an important role in this unique kind of teamwork.