Carolyn Hope Paxton, age 12, of SwandaW. Va., for her question:
What is an axolotl?
Peter Pan was a boy who refused to grow up and we might say that an axolotl is the Peter Pan of the animal world. We pronounce his name by saying ax‑oh and riming the last yu sable with bottle ‑ axolcti. This strange word comes from a language of the Mexican Indians and it means servant of the water. They gave it to a salamander of their mountain lakes a salamander who does not leave the water and grow up unless he has to do so.
The salamanders are amphibians, who wore the first backboned animals to leave the ancient seas and challenge life on the dry land. This was some 340 million years ago. Other animals followed later and did a better job of adjusting to life on the land. The amphibians, whose name means land and watery never quite lost their need for the water. Most of them still live their childhood in the water and tackle the dry land only as adults.
The average salamander follows the life story of the frog ‑ who is also an amphibian. First he is a jellified egg, floating in the hater. He hatches into a tadpole larva„ equipped with gills for breathing oxygen from the water, Later he swaps his fishy gills for a pair of lungs, grows arms and legs and comes out to challenge life in the air and on the land.
An amphibian, frog or salamander, has the most amazing skin in the world. Throughout his lifer this skin is able to absorb oxygen from the water or from the moist ground, Some adult salamanders have neither gills nor lungs and breathe entirely through their fins. The mud puppy is another variation. He is a salamander who keeps his gills even as an adult.
The‑ axolotl is another salamander who clings to his baby gills. In the larval or tadpole stage he is a chunky fellow, five or six inches long, Ho has a big head, small arms and legs and a fishy fin down his spine. He may live ‑s a tadpole in his mountain lake for 25 years and produce children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
However, this Peter Pan can and does grow up when he loses his mountain lake, If the water dries up or becomes too muddy,, he loses his gills and his fishy tail. He grows lungs and becomes an adult, salamander able to cape with life on the dry land.
The mud puppy cannot perform this amazing trick. He can never swap his gills for lungs. However there are other salamanders who follow the example of the true axolotl who lives in Mexico and certain arid regions of the American Southwest. One of them is the tiger salamander who lives much further east and north. This fellow also clings onto his youth, even after he is a grandfather. He can also develop into an air breathing adult and continue life on the dry land., As an adult he is a squat fellows seven inches longs black and mottled with yellow stripes. We also call this fellow an axolotl because, like Peter Pan, he refuses to grow up.