Lungless Salamander
by Sam
What’s a Lungless Salamander?
Guess what? Do you want to learn about an animal? Yes, no, maybe? I’ll tell you about an amphibian. An amphibian is any group of cold-blooded animals that have gills and live in water as larva but breathe air as adults (ex: frogs, toads). Scientists call this the Plethodontid salmander a.k.a the lungless salamander, which is part of the Plethodontidae family and a very unique species of lungless amphibians!
Lungless salamanders have four limbs (arms, legs) and 4-5 digits (toes) on their forelimbs (front arms) and hind limbs (back arms/legs)! Us humans have lungs, right. But just like in their name, these salamanders have no lungs, and live on LAND! OMG! (How can they breathe, you’ll wait and see!) They usually have lizard like appearances, and they have slender, slick bodies, short noses, and long tails. “Researchers” say they’re the most mysterious inhabitants (one who lives in a permanent place)! Now you know what a lungless salamander is. You've accomplished something! Yay!
How This Magnificent Animal Behaves
You might be weirded out so, here you go! Remember how lungless salamanders have no lungs? Did you know the lungless salamander breathes entirely through its skin!? You probably didn’t. Well, believe it or not, it’s true! What a really strange creature! They also breathe through their tissue lining (cells) in their mouths! Lined with glands (an organ), this groove (narrow channel) enhances the salamander’s ability to detect chemicals in the area (chemoreception)!
You know when you hurt or lose a body part, you wish it can regenerate or come back good as new? Well too bad, (ha, ha, you can’t), but the lungless salamander is able to regenerate lost limbs in a few weeks! (Don’t be upset, I have a big surprise for you in the last section.)
Picture this: a random lungless salamander lost its tail distracting or escaping a predator. In a few weeks’ time, its tail grows back good as new! You might think, LUCKY, well, yes, I think that too! Harde har har! (Are you weirded out?)
Where Can I Find That “Weird” Animal?
Far, far away from here lives a lungless salamander in the damp areas in Costa Rican Caribbean rainforest. Most of the salamanders live in the Western hemisphere, and no, they’re not near cowboys and they’re not related to them! Stay on topic! They also live in temperate (not too hot or cold) and neotropical zones (warm places) around the earth.
That’s all the places you find this animal, just kidding! From Columbia to Brazil, some Sardinia, Europe, south of the Alps and South Korea is where you find them as well. “Fun Fact,” they are very rare in the canopy (a place where the sky is basically covered with trees).
They also live in a global warming (warming around the world) area where it’s intense. Poor salamanders. Now you know where to find them. (Don't kill them, PLEASE!)
Where This All Begins…
Crack, crack! These animals hatch, already possessing an adult body form. They skip the larval (an early form of any animal/start or first form) stage. When the “mommy” lays her eggs, it’s called aquatic larvae (small eggs laid in water). So they lay eggs in the water. Do you wish you can be born like that? No?
Another fact is lungless salamanders, like the spiny salamander, are devoted parents that share egg-guarding duties! They curl their bodies around the eggs and turn them over from time to time. This protects the wonderful, beautiful, awesome eggs from disgusting, huge, rude predators (animals that hunt them) and gross fungal infections (a contagious fungus spreading to them). Do you want to be born like that now?
Snack Time and Death
Squish! A human stepped on me! Humans are considered predators pretty much, if they’re in my habitat. A habitat is where they live. Humans also destroy my habitat so, where can I live, hmmmmm?! Those big chubby boa constrictors are threats to me, a small defensive amphibian! Boas are so mean like a mean boss at work! Do you like fungus? Well I hate them, because they kill me, so I’m very rare (hard to find). That’s why you can’t and won't see me in many BOOKS! Now you know stop killing my home or else….
Now listen very carefully, I really love to eat a small insect that’s smaller than a small cut on your hand. What is it…I’ll never tell! JUST KIDDING! It’s a Colloembola (Co-Lem-bo-la) (like I said a small insect! I said listen very carefully!) So, how do I capture it, I sometimes use a projectile (something that is thrown or driven forward) tongue to capture prey at body length at high speed! (10 MILLISECONDS!) Cool!
Fun Facts!
Fun fact time!! No more boring, lame facts! How many species (types) of lungless salamanders are there? 2, 5, 100, 1,000,000? Nope, nope, never, and not even close! If you were thinking 550 then YES! There are 550 species of these salamanders. No one knows how they eat, and breed (to produce offspring by sexual reproduction). These are the largest group of salamanders in the world!
Last fact, so goodbye after this fact, and this is awesome (this is the special fact from “How This Magnificent Animal Behaves”), researchers tried finding conditions for regeneration (it means the same thing a regenerate) to duplicate the process with HUMANS! Ahhhhhhh. Okay, BYE!
by Sam
What’s a Lungless Salamander?
Guess what? Do you want to learn about an animal? Yes, no, maybe? I’ll tell you about an amphibian. An amphibian is any group of cold-blooded animals that have gills and live in water as larva but breathe air as adults (ex: frogs, toads). Scientists call this the Plethodontid salmander a.k.a the lungless salamander, which is part of the Plethodontidae family and a very unique species of lungless amphibians!
Lungless salamanders have four limbs (arms, legs) and 4-5 digits (toes) on their forelimbs (front arms) and hind limbs (back arms/legs)! Us humans have lungs, right. But just like in their name, these salamanders have no lungs, and live on LAND! OMG! (How can they breathe, you’ll wait and see!) They usually have lizard like appearances, and they have slender, slick bodies, short noses, and long tails. “Researchers” say they’re the most mysterious inhabitants (one who lives in a permanent place)! Now you know what a lungless salamander is. You've accomplished something! Yay!
How This Magnificent Animal Behaves
You might be weirded out so, here you go! Remember how lungless salamanders have no lungs? Did you know the lungless salamander breathes entirely through its skin!? You probably didn’t. Well, believe it or not, it’s true! What a really strange creature! They also breathe through their tissue lining (cells) in their mouths! Lined with glands (an organ), this groove (narrow channel) enhances the salamander’s ability to detect chemicals in the area (chemoreception)!
You know when you hurt or lose a body part, you wish it can regenerate or come back good as new? Well too bad, (ha, ha, you can’t), but the lungless salamander is able to regenerate lost limbs in a few weeks! (Don’t be upset, I have a big surprise for you in the last section.)
Picture this: a random lungless salamander lost its tail distracting or escaping a predator. In a few weeks’ time, its tail grows back good as new! You might think, LUCKY, well, yes, I think that too! Harde har har! (Are you weirded out?)
Where Can I Find That “Weird” Animal?
Far, far away from here lives a lungless salamander in the damp areas in Costa Rican Caribbean rainforest. Most of the salamanders live in the Western hemisphere, and no, they’re not near cowboys and they’re not related to them! Stay on topic! They also live in temperate (not too hot or cold) and neotropical zones (warm places) around the earth.
That’s all the places you find this animal, just kidding! From Columbia to Brazil, some Sardinia, Europe, south of the Alps and South Korea is where you find them as well. “Fun Fact,” they are very rare in the canopy (a place where the sky is basically covered with trees).
They also live in a global warming (warming around the world) area where it’s intense. Poor salamanders. Now you know where to find them. (Don't kill them, PLEASE!)
Where This All Begins…
Crack, crack! These animals hatch, already possessing an adult body form. They skip the larval (an early form of any animal/start or first form) stage. When the “mommy” lays her eggs, it’s called aquatic larvae (small eggs laid in water). So they lay eggs in the water. Do you wish you can be born like that? No?
Another fact is lungless salamanders, like the spiny salamander, are devoted parents that share egg-guarding duties! They curl their bodies around the eggs and turn them over from time to time. This protects the wonderful, beautiful, awesome eggs from disgusting, huge, rude predators (animals that hunt them) and gross fungal infections (a contagious fungus spreading to them). Do you want to be born like that now?
Snack Time and Death
Squish! A human stepped on me! Humans are considered predators pretty much, if they’re in my habitat. A habitat is where they live. Humans also destroy my habitat so, where can I live, hmmmmm?! Those big chubby boa constrictors are threats to me, a small defensive amphibian! Boas are so mean like a mean boss at work! Do you like fungus? Well I hate them, because they kill me, so I’m very rare (hard to find). That’s why you can’t and won't see me in many BOOKS! Now you know stop killing my home or else….
Now listen very carefully, I really love to eat a small insect that’s smaller than a small cut on your hand. What is it…I’ll never tell! JUST KIDDING! It’s a Colloembola (Co-Lem-bo-la) (like I said a small insect! I said listen very carefully!) So, how do I capture it, I sometimes use a projectile (something that is thrown or driven forward) tongue to capture prey at body length at high speed! (10 MILLISECONDS!) Cool!
Fun Facts!
Fun fact time!! No more boring, lame facts! How many species (types) of lungless salamanders are there? 2, 5, 100, 1,000,000? Nope, nope, never, and not even close! If you were thinking 550 then YES! There are 550 species of these salamanders. No one knows how they eat, and breed (to produce offspring by sexual reproduction). These are the largest group of salamanders in the world!
Last fact, so goodbye after this fact, and this is awesome (this is the special fact from “How This Magnificent Animal Behaves”), researchers tried finding conditions for regeneration (it means the same thing a regenerate) to duplicate the process with HUMANS! Ahhhhhhh. Okay, BYE!