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In most cases, these are external gills, visible as tufts on either side of the head. Some terrestrial salamanders have lungs used in respiration, although these are simple and sac-like, unlike the more complex organs found in mammals. Many species, such as the olm, have both lungs and gills as adults. [8]
A number of features distinguish the plethodontids from other salamanders. Most significantly, they lack lungs, conducting respiration through their skin, and the tissues lining their mouths. [3] Some species of cave salamanders are neotenic, and keep their larval gills even as adults. Gills are absent in all other adult plethodontids. [13]
These folds help increase the animals' surface area, allowing them to absorb more oxygen from the water as the adults lacks gills and have poorly developed lungs. Like in the majority of salamander species, there are four toes on the fore limbs and five on the hind limbs.
The distal portions of the gills are very filamentous and contain many capillaries. [7] Mudpuppies also have small, flattened limbs which can be used for slowly walking on the bottoms of streams or ponds, or they can be flattened against the body during short swimming spurts. [7] They have mucous glands which provide a slimy protective coating [4]
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Adult salamanders often have an aquatic phase in spring and summer, and a land phase in winter. For adaptation to a water phase, prolactin is the required hormone, and for adaptation to the land phase, thyroxine. External gills do not return in subsequent aquatic phases because these are completely absorbed upon leaving the water for the first ...
Dicamptodon have a snout-vent-length (SVL) of 350 mm (14 in), a broad head, laterally flexible flattened tails, paired premaxillae that are separate from the nasals, and the aquatic larvae have gills. Dicamptodon have lacrimals and pterygoids that are present, but quadratojugal are absent. [3] While most salamanders are silent, the Pacific ...
Scientists have determined that a giant salamander previously housed at the London Zoo not only represents a newly discovered species — it's also likely the largest amphibian known to man.