Facts about Salamander
Most salamanders are small, but some reach up to 5 feet (1.5 m) in length.
The members of Plethodontidae (lungless salamanders) breath through the skin rather than utilize lungs.
Salamanders are carnivores, eating insects and other arthropods, mollusks, worms, and sometimes aquatic crustaceans.
Salamanders are popular objects in literature, having role in Karel ?apekґs science fiction novel War with the Salamanders (or War with the Newts), C.S.
Salamanders not only provide benefit to their ecosystem through their role in food webs, but also provide benefit to humans beings.
Prior to a 1996 discovery of numerous salamander fossils in Asia, the oldest such fossils were traced only to about 65 million years ago.
North American blind salamanders live in underground caves, wells, and streams.
The mythical salamander resembles the real salamander somewhat in appearance, but has six legs and makes its home in fires, the hotter the better.
Salamanders are found in most moist or aqueous habitats in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.
Salamanders characteristically have slender bodies, short legs, long tails, and moist, smooth skin, although rough-skinned species exist.
Salamanders have a long history interacting with human culture, being represented in mythology, legends, folklore, literature, and art.
Later, Paracelsus suggested that the salamander was the elemental of fire.
Salamanders generally have a biphasic life cycle, typified by an aquatic larval stage with external gills and a terrestrial adult form that utilizes lungs or breathes through moist skin (Larson et al.
Early travelers to China were shown garments supposedly woven from salamander wool; the cloth was completely unharmed by fire.
Salamanders provide great benefit to humans, consuming mosquito larvae and helping to control other insect and pest populations.
Leonardo da Vinci wrote the following on the salamander: "This has no digestive organs, and gets no food but from the fire, in which it constantly renews its scaly skin.
Salamander is the common term for any member of the order Caudata (also called Urodela) of the class Amphibia.