Valentine's southern dusky salamander

It was previously thought to be a population of Holbrook's southern dusky salamander (D. holbrooki), with both species being grouped together as the southern dusky salamander. However, a 2008 study found D. holbrooki as previously defined to be polyphyletic and containing multiple undescribed species.[3] One of these undescribed species was formally described in 2017 as D. valentinei.[4] It is named in honor of Barry D. Valentine, a biologist and former faculty emeritus at Ohio State University, who had first suggested the distinctiveness of this taxon in the early 1960s.[5]

It is found in the Gulf Coast region, where it ranges from the Mobile Bay region of Alabama west through the southern half of Mississippi to eastern Louisiana.[3]

Despite its close resemblance to D. holbrooki, it has some morphological differences. It has a larger body structure than D. holbrooki and has nondescript dorsal markings instead of the crisply-defined blotches on other Desmognathus species. They also differ in aspects of the skull, and the tails of D. valentinei have a bladelike shape instead of narrowing to a tip.[5]