Caucasian salamander (Mertensiella caucasica)

The Caucasian salamander (Mertensiella caucasica) is a species of stream-dwelling salamander in the Salamandridae family.

The Caucasian salamander lives along the banks of mountain brooks and small rivers with fast currents, both in the forest belt and above timberline, up to about 2,400 m above sea level.

Stream-dwelling salamanders, such as Caucasian Salamander or Gold-striped salamander have very slender, long bodies, perfectly adapted to life at the banks of fast small rivers and mountain brooks.

Some relict species of vertebrates are Caucasian parsley frog, Caucasian Salamander, Robert's Snow Vole, Caucasian Grouse, and they are almost entirely endemic groups of animals such as lizards of genus Darevskia.

Genetic data suggest that the Colchis temperate rainforest, during the Ice Age, was fragmented into smaller parts; in particular, evolutionary lineages of the Caucasian Salamander from the central and south-western Colchis remained isolated from one another during the entire Ice Age.