Welcome to Colin's Sick and Slimy Page of
Salamanders
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you know...
-
The largest salamander in the world is 6 feet long. That salamander species is called the Chinese Giant Salamander. The second largest species in the world is called the Japanese Giant Salamander.
-
As a way to escape predators, salamanders drop their tails. As their tails wiggle, the predator thinks that the tail is the salamander allow the salamander to escape or stay still long enough for the predator to stop noticing it. This adaption came from their ancestry of the reptile groups.
-
Lungless salamanders hunt using their hyoid bone and their tongue. They "shoot" their hyoid bone along with their tongue using thir mouth. On the tip of their tongue there is a mucus that sticks on to the prey. They then use muscles in the pelvic area to reel back their hyoid bone and tongue back in.
-
Salamanders use trichromatic color vision to find prey in ultraviolet ranges.
-
Salamanders are very common in many places. If you can find a wet and swampy area with a lot of rocks, look under the rocks and you should be able to find a salamander.
Salamander Characteristics
Salamanders have a body that is similar to lizards. They have a slender body, four limbs, and long tails. As they grow, they shed their epidermis, or outer skin. There are salamanders that range in size from a full size of 2.7 centimeters (1.1 inches) to 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) although usually the sizes of salamanders are between 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) and 20 centimeters (7.9 inches). Most salamanders have small teeth in their upper and lower jaws. Many salamanders eat insects, small seafood, and smaller invertibres and turtles, snakes, owls, raccoons, and wading birds all eat salamanders and newts.
Salamander Habitat
Salamanders usually live in wet places because they are aquatic. They can live on land or in water. Some types can burrow underground and usually those types of salamanders live there. For example, Hellbenders usually live from temporary pools to large rivers. Dusky salamanders usually live in cold mountain streams and the Tiger salamander lives in warm ponds. Most aquatic salamanders usually lay their eggs in the water but terrestrial salamanders lay theirs in moist areas, under vegetation, rocks, or underground.
Salamander Life Span
Most salamanders usually live from 8 to 20 years, but larger, aquatic salamanders (like the hellbender, can live up to 55 years!
In the video above on the left, the frog eats the salamander. The poisonous covering on the salamander kills the frog and the salamander climbs safely out of the frogs mouth. In the video on the right, a Three Toed Amphiuma Salamander is eating a frog. That frog must've had a very bad stomach ache!
Sources and Additional Links
Wikipedia Chart: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamanders >> Febuary 13, 2009 >> last edited by Ruhrfisch
Picture of Giant Chinese Salamander: http://www.wawayu.com.cn/eshow.asp?ArticleID=579 >>(2003)
of Small, Red Salamander: http://www.anselm.edu
Source of Big Salamander in Mud: http://www.spectacular-planet.com/images/salamander3.jpg,
Source of Small, Brown Salamander: http://www.algo217.k12.il.us >>
Source
This is a wiki link to Reptiles.
This is a web link.
_edit.jpg)
Comments (1)
alexanderR said
at 11:16 am on Feb 9, 2010
best so far
You don't have permission to comment on this page.