Stats

Lifespan: 12-15 yrs
Size: Medium
Diet: Carnivore
Activity: Cathemeral
Social: Solitary
Biome: Freshwater wetland
Range: North America
Movement: Swimming
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Toxins
Status: Common

About

This amphibian famously lives a triple life: aquatic larva, bright orange land-dwelling 'red eft' for up to three years, then back to water as an olive-green adult. Its skin secretes a potent toxin, tetrodotoxin, that deters nearly all predators.

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

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Salamandridae
Genus: Notophthalmus
Species: Notophthalmus viridescens