Category: Amphibians
This enigmatic species is arguably the best known salamander species in Europe. It is black with varying proportions of bright yellow stripes and/or spots (and sometimes shades of red and orange). They can be very long lived – one specimen kept in a German natural history museum lived to be more than 50 years old! They prefer to live in deciduous forests, where they can hide in fallen leaves and lurk near mossy tree trunks.
Learn more about the Fire Salamander at Wikipedia and Reptiles Magazine.
An Ample Amphibian
Before reptiles and mammals appeared to challenge amphibian supremacy on the land, amphibians were much larger. But while they have shrunk in size over the last 315 million years, the Chinese Giant Salamander never got the memo: at up to 5.9 feet in length and 66lbs, this amphibian is longer than your dog, and probably weighs at least as much! Compare that to Paedophryne amanuensis, the world’s smallest frog (and smallest vertebrate) who is the size of a house fly! Due to habitat loss, environmental changes, and over-hunting/collecting, the Chinese giant Salamander is critically endangered, though conservation efforts to save it are underway today.
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