Olms
Proteus
The olm or proteus (Proteus anguinus) is an aquatic salamander in the family Proteidae, the only exclusively cave-dwelling chordate species found in Europe. In contrast to most amphibians, it is entirely aquatic; it eats, sleeps, and breeds underwater. Living in caves found in the Dinaric Alps, it is endemic to the waters that flow underground through the extensive limestone of the karst of Central and Southeastern Europe, specifically southern Slovenia, the basin of the Soča River...
9 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 9 known species
Ljubljanica’s olm
speciesProteus xanthostictus
Istrian olm
speciesProteus ikae
Classic Karst olm
speciesProteus maurii
Freyer’s olm
speciesProteus freyeri
Dalmatian olm
speciesProteus carrarae
Black Olm
speciesProteus parkelj
Croatian olm
speciesProteus croaticus
Stična’s olm
speciesProteus anguinus
Bosnian olm
speciesProteus bosniensis
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Proteus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 27676.