Axolotls are gigantic and adorable salamanders native to Mexico-2022
Axolotls are endearing salamanders with charming personalities and a nearly supernatural ability to restore missing or damaged body parts. However, pollution and urbanization pose a severe threat to this species survival.
In the 13th century, when the Aztecs were first establishing the area surrounding what is now Mexico City in the Valley of Mexico, they discovered a giant salamander inhabiting the lake that encircled the island where they established Tenochtitlán as their capital city. In honor of their god Xolotl, connected with lightning and fire, they referred to the salamander as an “axolotl.” According to Aztec tradition, Xolotl turned into a salamander, among other forms, in order to avoid being sacrificed so that the sun and moon might traverse the sky. However, he was ultimately apprehended and executed.
Likewise, axolotls, which the Aztecs frequently hunted and killed for their meat, are today a favorite meal in Mexico. But axolotls have become one of the most well-known salamanders in the world, whether as pets due to their personality and ease of care or, more recently, as highly sought-after characters in Fortnite, one of Minecraft’s most popular online games. The astounding ability of the creatures to regenerate body parts has even aroused the interest of scientists as a prospective research topic. In their native habitat of Mexico, salamanders are vanishing at an alarming rate and are considered severely endangered.
Ambystoma mexicanum, sometimes known as axolotls, is the sole living species in the family Ambystomatidae, which contains only one genus. According to the website AmphibiaWeb, which the University of California maintains, Berkeley, there are around 30 species of salamanders in the genus Ambystoma, also known as the mole salamanders.
Others have attained an average length of 9 inches (23 centimeters) (20 centimeters). According to the study undertaken by the University of Liverpool, the typical longevity of a captive salamander is between 5 and 6 years. However, some specimens have been found to survive up to 17 years.
WHERE DO AXOLOTLS LIVE?
Axolotls found in the wild are exclusive to the marshy areas that are all that remains of Lake Xochimilco and the canals that lead to it on Mexico City’s southern edge. The Axolotl was first discovered in Lake Chalco, one of Mexico City’s five “big lakes,” where the Aztecs previously resided and where axolotls were discovered. With the exception of Xochimilco, all of these lakes were drained in the 1970s to prevent flooding and make room for urban growth.
HOW DO AXOLOTLS CONTINUE TO REPRODUCE?
Reproduction of the axolotl begins with dancing, in both senses of the term. According to the University of Michigan’s Animal Diversity Web, male and female salamanders engage in a type of dance when they nuzzle and stroke one another’s cloaca, or urogenital entrance. The male will then strut away while shimmying his tail to entice the female to follow him. A spermatophore is a tiny white capsule containing sperm that the male dance partner drops as the two dancers’ step together. The male advances alongside the female until she brushes up against the spermatophore and seizes it with her cloaca.
Once a year, between March and June, axolotls engage in this courtship behavior. Upon completion of the mating dance, the female axolotl will carefully attach each of her 100 to 300 jelly-coated eggs to a different plant or rock in the water. Approximately ten to fourteen days later, the eggs will hatch, leaving the young to fend for themselves. Axolotls do not reach sexual maturity until around one year after birth.
However, axolotls are a few species of salamanders that do not undergo the metamorphosis that causes other salamanders to become primarily lung-breathing adult terrestrials. American evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould developed the term “sexually mature tadpoles” to describe adult salamanders. It is because adult salamanders always retain juvenile characteristics, such as a completely aquatic lifestyle, a finned tail, and frilly gills. The scientific word for the evolutionary process that culminates in “everlasting youth” is paedomorphosis, also known as neoteny. Scientists can make axolotls change into butterflies or moths in the lab by giving them iodine or thyroid hormones. Still, in the wild, axolotl metamorphosis is extremely rare, according to research published in the journal BioScience in 2015.
