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| The three-toed amphiuma, Amphiuma tridactylum Cuvier, 1827. It is distributed from southeast Missouri, adjacent Kentucky and southwest Indiana southward to western Alabama, Louisiana, southwest Oklahoma, and eastern Texas, USA. Adults may exceed 1 meter in length. They prefer muddy, stagnant water but do not survive well in polluted environments. This captive animal lived in my classroom-lab for many years. |
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| Amphiumas are endemic to the Gulf Coastal Plain of the southeastern USA. These large, aquatic salamanders are voracious predators on the aquatic fauna. Despite the fact that their eyes are very degenerated they readily locate prey through a lateral line system and chemical cues. One living genus contains three species. In the Miocene these salamanders were more widespread in North America and had larger, better developed limbs. They are sometimes called congo eels and exceed one meter in length. O. P. Hay wrote about the reproduction of these salamanders in 1888. He found a large female in the drying bed of a cypress swamp near Little Rock, Arkansas. She was in a shallow depression and coiled around a mass of about 150 eggs, each about 9 mm in diameter. The eggs were connected to each other as beads on a rosary. Embryos were coiled in each egg and were about 45 mm long. The gills and legs were well developed. Amphiumas are the sister to the Plethodontidae (lungless salamanders) and last shared an ancestor with them 124 Ma (175-115 Ma). |