Salamander long-toed

The long-toed salamander, macrodactylum, a terrestrial form, avoids... 

Chivers, D.P., E.L. Wildy A.R. Blaustein. 1997b. Eastern long-toed salamander (Amby-stoma macrodactylum columbianum) larvae recognize cannibalistic conspecifics. Ethology 103 187-197. 

Courtship pheromones are not necessarily species specific. Pairs of the woodland salamander, Plethodon shermani, courted for an equally long time (about 35 to 50 minutes) whether male pheromone from the mental gland of conspecifics or the allopatric species P. montanus or P. yonahlosscc was present, even though the composition of the proteinacous pheromones (plethodontid receptivity factor of these three species differ considerably (Rollmann et al, 2003). 

It has long been known that salamanders are venomous animals just a century ago Zalesky [1) isolated a poisonous substance from the skin glands. This substance behaved like an alkaloid and was named saman-darine though it is now known to be a mixture of alkaloids. 

Salamanders are 550 extant species of amphibians within the family of Caudata [39] (see Figure 2.7). The shape of their bodies is like a lizard, with slender bodies, short noses, and long tails. Salamanders live in or near water, or in wetland. Some salamanders are fully aquatic, some take to the water intermittently, and some are entirely terrestrial. Salamanders are often referred to as having a perfect regeneration capability, because they can heal any structure or cell type of their body entirely [40]. They are able to perform scar-free repair of deep tissue wounds after injury. Salamanders are capable of regenerating lost limbs, damaged lungs, sliced... 

In 1955, Ris [120], working with sectioned meiotic and mitotic chromosomes of rat, salamander, lily, and onion, was the first to observe that long fibers about 200 A in diameter were fundamental units of structure in both plant and animal chromosomes. During mitosis and meiosis, these 200-A fibers are apparently coiled around each other, forming large bundles. From his studies on honey bee embryonic cells, DuPraw [121] demonstrated that 230-A fundamental fibers can be found in vivo and that such fibers are firmly attached to the nuclear envelope at the edges of the annuli. 

Alkaloids were considered for a long time as specialized products solely of plant metabolism. Yet in recent times alkaloids have been isolated from both vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Some of the animal alkaloids can clearly be traced to a food plant ingested. As an example, the alkaloid castoramine, isolated from the beaver (Castor canadense), resembles the alkaloids of the water lilies, Nuphar spp., which serve as food for the beavers. Some caterpillars accumulate alkaloids from the plants on which they feed. Other alkaloids, however, such as the ones found in toads, salamanders, and some fishes, are true products of animal metabolism. 

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