Stats

Lifespan: 10-15 yrs
Size: Small
Diet: Insectivore
Activity: Nocturnal
Social: Solitary
Biome: Temperate coniferous forest
Range: North America
Movement: Walking
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Toxins
Status: Common

About

A lungless salamander that breathes entirely through its moist skin, famous among biologists as a textbook 'ring species' — its populations form an unbroken chain around California's Central Valley, with neighboring forms interbreeding except where the two ends meet and can no longer produce viable offspring.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A jelly-coated egg is laid in water and develops over days into an aquatic larva.
2.
tadpole
A gilled tadpole swims and grazes on algae, slowly absorbing its tail and growing limbs.
3.
juvenile
A near-adult amphibian leaves the water with new legs and lungs, smaller than the mature form.
4.
adult
Fully grown at adult size, breathing air.

Learn more

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Plethodontidae
Genus: Ensatina
Species: Ensatina eschscholtzii