Acknowledgments

Funding was provided through the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCMR), the USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI), and Simpson College. The drawings, with one exception, are by Pearl Podgorniak from specimens in the collections of the University of Kansas, Bell Museum of Natural History, or the personal collection of Jeff Parmelee. The illustration of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander is by Sian Marcone from a photo by Erica Crespi.

Bill Duellman and John Simmons at the University of Kansas, and Andrew Simons at the Bell Museum lent us specimens in their care. We thank R. W. Van Devender for his excellent photographs of a larval Mudpuppy, Four-toed Salamander, Eastern Newt, and Small-mouthed Salamander, which served as models for the drawings. We thank Jim Christiansen and John Moriarty for helping us with the distribution maps of amphibians. We borrowed the idea of the circular key from Oldfield and Moriarty (1994) and the general format from Christoffel et al. (2001). We also thank Jerry Cox, Shawn Weick, Josh Kapfer, William Richardson, John Moriarty, Carl Korschgen, Sam Bourassa, Ben Campbell, Joel Jahimiack, and Andy Kimball for logistical and field assistance. We also thank the private landowners who participated in the farm pond research study that led to the development of this field guide.