Giant salamander

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Giant Salamanders

Andrias japonicus

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Subclass:	Lissamphibia
Order:	Caudata
Family:	Cryptobranchidae

Genera

Andrias
Cryptobranchus

The hellbender and Asian giant salamanders (family Cryptobranchidae) are aquatic amphibians found in brooks and ponds in the eastern United States, China, and Japan. They are the largest living amphibians known today. The Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus), for example, reaches up to 1.44 m (4 ft 9 in), feeds on fish, and crustaceans - and has been known to live for more than 50 years in captivity.^[1] The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) can reach a length of 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in).^[2]

They hunt mainly at night, and as they have poor eyesight, use sensory nodes on their head and body to detect minute changes in water pressure, allowing them to detect their prey.

1 Reproduction
2 Scientific names
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Reproduction

During mating season, these salamanders will travel upstream where, after the fertilization of the eggs, the male will guard them for at least three months. At this point, the offspring will live off their noticeable stored fat until ready to hunt. Once ready they will hunt as a group rather than individually.

Scientists at Asa Zoo in Japan have recently discovered that the male salamander will spawn with more than one female in his den. On occasion the male "den master" will also allow a second male into the den; the reason for this is unclear.

[edit] Scientific names

Genus Cryptobranchus (hellbender)
- Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis )
Genus Andrias (Asian giant salamanders; sometimes classified among the Cryptobranchus)
- Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) – (Simplified Chinese: 娃娃鱼; pinyin: wāwāyú)
- Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus) – (Japanese: オオサンショウウオ)
- †Andrias scheuchzeri.

Japanese giant salamander.

In 1726, the Swiss physician Johann Jakob Scheuchzer described a fossil as Homo diluvii testis (Latin: "Evidence of a diluvian human"), believing it to be the remains of a human being that drowned in the biblical Deluge. The Teylers Museum in Haarlem, Netherlands bought the fossil in 1802, where it still is being exhibited. In 1812, the fossil was examined by Georges Cuvier, who recognized it as not being human. After being recognized as a salamander, it was renamed Salamandra scheuchzeri by Holl in 1831. The genus Andrias was only coined six years later by Tschudi. In doing so both the genus, Andrias (which means image of man), and the specific name, scheuchzeri, ended up honouring Scheuchzer and his beliefs. It and the extant A. davidianus cannot be mutually diagnosed, and the latter, only described in 1871, is therefore sometimes considered a synonym of the former.^[3]