Stats

Lifespan: 20-30 yrs
Size: Medium
Diet: Carnivore
Activity: Nocturnal
Social: Solitary
Biome: Temperate forest
Range: North America
Movement: Walking
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Toxins
Status: Common

About

A stout, secretive mole salamander with two rows of bright yellow-to-orange spots running from head to tail against blue-black skin. It spends most of the year underground in burrows and only emerges on rainy nights in early spring to migrate en masse to vernal pools for breeding.

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.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Ambystomatidae
Genus: Ambystoma
Species: Ambystoma maculatum