Chunky False Brook Salamander vs Cinder Lichen

Aquiloeurycea cephalica compared with Aspicilia cinerea

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Chunky False Brook Salamander	Cinder Lichen
Kingdom	Animalia (Animals)	Fungi (Fungi)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Ascomycota (Sac Fungi)
Class	Amphibia (Amphibians)	Lecanoromycetes (Lecanoromycetes)
Order	Caudata (Caudata)	Pertusariales (Pertusariales)
Family	Plethodontidae	Megasporaceae
Genus	Aquiloeurycea	Aspicilia
Species	Aquiloeurycea cephalica	Aspicilia cinerea

Conservation Status

Chunky False Brook Salamander

LC — Least Concern

Cinder Lichen

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Chunky False Brook Salamander	Cinder Lichen
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Chunky False Brook Salamander

Habitat

Typically found in freshwater habitats, moist forests, and wetlands.

Range

Found in Mexico.

Cinder Lichen

Habitat

Native to Europe and North America, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Range

Distributed across Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and United States.

Chunky False Brook Salamander

The Chunky False Brook Salamander (Aquiloeurycea cephalica) is a Least Concern plethodontid salamander endemic to Mexico, found in cloud forest and humid montane habitats in the Sierra Madre Oriental and related mountain ranges. The genus Aquiloeurycea is a recently erected Mexican endemic genus segregated from the broader genus Pseudoeurycea, comprising several small, robustly built (hence 'chunky') salamanders associated with high-elevation forests. Like all plethodontids, A. cephalica is a lungless salamander that breathes entirely through its moist, vascularized skin and the lining of its mouth. It is a direct developer, skipping the aquatic larval stage entirely and laying eggs in terrestrial microhabitats such as rotting logs, leaf litter, and soil. A. cephalica inhabits cool, humid forests of pine-oak and cloud forest zones in northern Mexico, where it forages for small invertebrates in the leaf litter and soil. The IUCN assesses it as Least Concern due to its reasonably wide distribution within its montane range. Deforestation, cattle grazing, and the conversion of cloud forest to agriculture represent ongoing threats to populations throughout its range.

Cinder Lichen

Cinder lichen (Aspicilia cinerea) is a crustose lichen in the family Megasporaceae, found widely across the Northern Hemisphere in boreal, montane, and arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. It grows as a flat, gray to ash-gray crust on exposed siliceous rock surfaces—particularly granite, gneiss, and other hard acidic rocks—in open, high-light environments such as moorland boulders, mountain crags, stream-side rocks, and coastal outcrops. The cinder lichen's granular to warty thallus and its pale gray color, reminiscent of volcanic ash or cinder, give the species its common name. Aspicilia cinerea is classified as Least Concern, with widespread and abundant populations in suitable rocky habitats. Like many saxicolous lichens, it is extremely slow-growing and may live for centuries on stable rock surfaces. The species forms part of diverse epilithic lichen communities that colonize bare rock and contribute to biological weathering and soil formation. It is resistant to desiccation and temperature extremes, making it well adapted to exposed subalpine and arctic environments. Cinder lichen has been used as a model organism in studies of lichen growth rates and rock weathering. The genus Aspicilia is one of the largest in lichenized fungi, and molecular work has substantially revised its circumscription.