A salamander is a common name for the order of Caudata which consists of 9 families. Eight of these 9 families are found in North America. Newt is a common name applied to certain members of a family of relatively small salamanders. Also in the order of caudataare, are sirens which are aquatic salamanders that lack hind limbs. Thus, newts and sirens are actually salamanders. Salamanders make up a mere 350 species out of the 4,000+ known species of amphibians.