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Large Female Hellbender from a West Virginia river. Jeff Humphries “Allegheny Alligators” “snot otters” “devil dogs” All of these vividly descriptive commonly used names are describing the same creature, the giant salamander of the Appalachian Mountains known as the hellbender (Crytobranchus alleganiensis).
Kingdom:Phylum:Class:Order:Suborder:Family:Fitzinger, 1826Genera. †. †. †The Cryptobranchidae are a of fully aquatic commonly known as the giant salamanders.
A single, the ( Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), inhabits the, with species also inhabiting China and Japan. They are the largest living known today. The ( Andrias japonicus) reaches up to 1.44 m (4.7 ft) in length, feeds at night on and, and has been known to live for more than 50 years in captivity. The ( Andrias sligoi) can reach a length of 1.8 m (5.9 ft).
In 1726, the Swiss physician described a fossil as Homo diluvii testis (: Evidence of a human), believing it to be the remains of a human being who drowned in the biblical. The in, bought the fossil in 1802, where it is still exhibited. In 1812, the fossil was examined by, who recognized that it was not human. After being identified as a salamander, it was renamed scheuchzeri by Holl in 1831. The Andrias was coined six years later. In doing so, both the genus, Andrias (which means 'image of man'), and the, scheuchzeri, ended up honouring Scheuchzer and his beliefs.
It and the A. Davidianus cannot be mutually distinguished, and the latter, only described in 1871, is therefore sometimes considered a of the former. Description Cryptobranchids are large, with large folds of skin along their flanks. These help increase the animals' surface area, allowing them to absorb more oxygen from the water. They have four toes on the fore limbs, and five on the hind limbs. Their from the larval stage is incomplete, so the adults retain gill slits (although they also have lungs), and lack eyelids.
They have bad eyesight. They can reach a length of 1.8 m (5.9 ft), though most are considerably smaller today. Distribution and habitat In Japan, their natural habitats are threatened by dam-building. Ramps and staircases have been added to some dams to allow them to move upstream to areas where they spawn.Behavior A Japanese giant salamander lived for 52 years in captivity. Feeding The Chinese giant salamander eats aquatic insects, fish, frogs, crabs, and shrimp. They hunt mainly at night.
As they have poor eyesight, they use sensory nodes on their heads and bodies to detect minute changes in water pressure, enabling them to find their prey. Reproduction During mating season, the salamanders travel upstream, where the female lays two strings of over 200 eggs each. The male fertilizes the eggs externally by releasing his sperm onto them, and then guards them for at least three months, until they hatch. At this point, the larvae live off their noticeable stored fat until ready to hunt. Once ready, they hunt as a group rather than individually.Scientists at in Japan have recently discovered the male salamander will spawn with more than one female in his den.
Kritika online all characters. On occasion, the male 'den master' will also allow a second male into the den; the reason for this is unclear.References. AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb.
Retrieved 13 December 2012. ^.
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AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. Retrieved 13 December 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2019. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
Turvey, S. M.; Barnes, I.; Brace, S.; Tapley, B.; Murphy, R. W.; Zhao, E.; Cunningham, A. 'Historical museum collections clarify the evolutionary history of cryptic species radiation in the world's largest amphibians'.
Ecology and Evolution. 00: 1–15.:. ^ Gao, Ke-Qin; Shubin, Neil H.
(27 March 2003). 'Earliest known crown-group salamanders'. 422 (6930): 424–428. Swanson, P.L.
![Salamander Salamander](http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/kwmu/files/styles/medium/public/201506/adult_hellbender_2014_ray_meibaum_saint_louis_zoo.jpg)
(September 1948). 'Notes on the Amphibians of Venango County, Pennsylvania'. American Midland Naturalist. 40 (2): 362–371. Frost, Darrel R. (31 January 2011).
Amphibian Species of the World: An online reference (Version 5.5 ed.). New York, NY: American Museum of Natural History. New York, NY: American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 13 December 2012. 31 December 2009. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
^ Lanza, B.; Vanni, S. & Zweifel, R.G. Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. San Diego: Academic Press.
P. 69. Glenn, C.R. Earth's Endangered Creatures. Retrieved 13 December 2012.External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to.
Facebook.com/Arkansas Game and Fish Commission/Kelly Irwin
Hellbender salamanders are two feet of brown wrinkles that come to soggy oatmeal pie heads, as if inside-out intestines could squirm on Beanie Baby legs through river bottoms. Hellbender salamanders are the best creatures in the world. I will not back down from this.
After their Chinese and Japanese freshwater brethren, these salamanders are the largest in the world. Behold these photos, proudly displayed like specimens that had been lured away from the time when lizards flew and dragonflies were the size of dinner plates on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Facebook page today:
Let the many names of the hellbender flow over you in a mud bath of nomenclature. The hellbender is also the snot otter, and the grampus, and the mud-dog, Allegheny alligator, leverian water newt, or the Cryptobranchus alleganiensis.
They have been compared to dragons, but they are more Bilbo Baggins than Smaug, cautiously selecting a rocky hole in the river bottom where they’ll stay for years, invisible except for hungry heads hoping to snag unsuspecting crayfish. The well-fed grampus will live to the ripe age of 30.
But, like the ancient wyrm facing down St. George’s blade, the future of the hellbender looks grim. The Ozark hellbender subspecies is now found only in Arkansas and Missouri. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists hellbenders as “near threatened,” citing habitat loss and declines of up to 30 percent every three generations. As skin-breathers, the critters are susceptible to poor water quality and disease.
And yet in the darkness gleams a thin, opalescent mucus-strand of hope. A few hearty herpetologists and wildlife conservationists, so moved by the squishy beauty of the beast or perhaps its ecological value, aren’t going to let the hellbender descend into a historical footnote quietly. They’ve turned to new technological sleuthing techniques — such as looking for whispers of amphibian DNA in the water — rather than disturbing the hellbender’s rocky holes to see where the animals are making a stand. Thanks to breeding programs like that at the St. Louis Zoo, reintroduction efforts are underway. The odds of winning this fight is not great, but that’s simply par for course when dragons are involved.
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