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Plethodontid salamanders form incipient lungs as embryos despite the loss of lungs in adults millions of years ago. 

Abstract The impact of preserved museum specimens is transforming and increasing by three-dimensional (3D) imaging that creates high-fidelity online digital specimens. Through examples from the openVertebrate (oVert) Thematic Collections Network, we describe how we created a digitization community dedicated to the shared vision of making 3D data of specimens available and the impact of these data on a broad audience of scientists, students, teachers, artists, and more. High-fidelity digital 3D models allow people from multiple communities to simultaneously access and use scientific specimens. Based on our multiyear, multi-institution project, we identify significant technological and social hurdles that remain for fully realizing the potential impact of digital 3D specimens. 

The genus Chiropterotriton is endemic to Mexico with a geographical distribution along the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt and the Sierra de Juárez. The recent use of molecular tools has shown that Mexico’s amphibian diversity is highly underestimated, including a large number of cryptic, unnamed species. Chiropterotriton has 18 described species including terrestrial, arboreal and cave-dwelling species. In previous molecular studies, the presence of multiple undescribed species was evident. We present a phylogenetic hypothesis based on mitochondrial data, which includes all described species and six undescribed taxa. Based on the morphological analyses and, when available, combined with molecular data, we describe five new species of the genus; Chiropterotriton casasi sp. nov., C. ceronorum sp. nov., C. melipona sp. nov., C. perotensis sp. nov. and C. totonacus sp. nov. In addition, we redescribe two others: Chiropterotriton chiropterus and C. orculus , and provide a comparable account of one additional sympatric congener. This increases the number of species in the genus to 23, which represent a considerable component of Mexican plethodontid richness.