Tommy Girdler, age 14, of Somerset, Kentucky, for his question:
What is a salamander?
You might mistake a small salamander for a lizard. But the lizard has a dry, scaly skin and claws on his toes. The salamander has soft, clawless fingers on his feet and his moist skin rates as one of the wonders of nature. It is a breathing organ. What's more, most salamanders are able to breathe oxygen from either air or water.
Salamanders belong to the class Amphibia ‑ the land and water dwellers. Their order is Caudata, the tailed ones. This order distinguishes them from the tailless amphibians ‑ the frogs and toads. Maybe the salamander admires these cousins because they can croak and he has no voice at ally But the salamander has a quality which most other animals could envy. He can re‑grow a lost tail or a whole leg.
The Caudata order includes the pretty newts and gifts, the ugly hellbenders, the mud puppies and the so‑called Congo eels of southeastern streams. It also includes a large number of plain and fancy salamanders large and small.
Most of the world's salamanders live in Northern America. We have some 125 varieties. The salamander's wonderful skin dictates where he must live, for it must be kept cool and moist. Hence we find him in and near ponds, lakes, streams and rivers. Some varieties live in damp woods and some live in the darkness of cool caves.
In character, the salamander is shy and timid. He avoids trouble by hiding and fleeing. Yet he is a meat eater. He feeds on insects, snails, worms, fish eggs and small fish. The newt is the gad‑about of the family. He can endure sunshine and is seen during broad daylight.
Every salamander begins life as an egg, then goes through a larva stage. Some varieties never got beyond the larva stage. The common orange colored newt lays her eggs in the water. The larvae have gills and stay in the water. The little fellow takes to the moist land when their gills are replaced by lungs. The red‑brown dusky salamander lays her eggs in moist ground. When the youngsters are a few days old they make their way to the water.
Each type of salamander lives his own lift story. However, all the larvae have gills and teeth. The mud puppy never loses his feathery gills. The newt replaces his baby gills with lungs. The arboreal salamander of the Pacific Coast has neither lungs nor gills. The egg is laid on or near the ground. The baby develops little legs before hatching. Throughout life, this salamander breathes air through his skin and through the skin of his mouth and throat.
The giant of the salamander clan lives to China and Japan. He is a huge fellow over five feet long. In captivity, this giant salamander has been known to live half a century. The smallest salamander is a blond fellow, one inch long. He is a native of the moist spruce forests of our southeastern states. The hellbender may be two foot long, the so‑called Congo eel may be over a yard long. Most of the salamanders are charming, shy little creatures some three to six inches long.