The Algerian Ribbed Newt or Triton D'Algerie (Pleurodeles nebulosus) is a species of salamander in the Salamandridae family found in Algeria and Tunisia.
The natural habitats of this newt are rivers, intermittent rivers, swamps, cisterns, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, and ponds. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Formerly this species was confused with Pleurodeles poireti. Carranza and Wade (2004) found out that most North African Pleurodeles species previously referred to as P. poireti were in fact Pleurodeles nebulosus, an altogether different species. The true P. poireti newts are restricted to the Edough massif, in northeast Algeria.
The Ribbed Newts (Pleurodeles genus) is a group of three newt species:
The Iberian Ribbed Newt is the most common of the species, and the most frequently used as a model organism by scientists. However, in the wild its numbers are declining, and in 2006 it became a near threatened species. The other two species are in fact threatened, with P. nebulosus considered vulnerable to extinction and P. poireti classified as an endangered species. The numbers of all three species are declining in the wild. Livestock agriculture is an ongoing major cause of habitat loss and degradation, and of water pollution, for all three species.