Quest for Paedomorphic Mole Salamanders

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Miranda Gulsby in Pettyjohns Cave with her first ever Cave Salamander (Eurycea lucifuga) — Also, she was sporting my Flatwoods Salamander design SEPARC shirt. Just a very salamandery shot.
Drs Ensign and McNeal's KSU Biology course, with state Herpetologist and Amphibian Foundation Scientific Advisory Board member John Jensen. The professors let me enlist the students to help collect paedomorphic Mole Salamanders (Ambystoma talpoideum) for our captive breeding program @ #MetaMo @amphibianfound


Mole Salamanders are both a species, and a family of salamanders. The family: Ambystomatidae is so named due to the fact that most species of this family are fossorial (spend the majority of the time underground).

The chunkiest of the bunch is Ambystoma talpoideum, the Mole Salamander.

These adorable ambystomatids, the Mole Salamanders (Ambystoma talpoideum) have large heads, and short, stocky bodies
Mole Salamanders (the species) have an interesting reproductive strategy and can be facultatively paedomorphic. If the conditions are right, these animals can speed up the time until they are able to reproduce through a process called progenesis. They can reach sexual maturity while still in their larval stage.

According to John Jensen, state Herpetologist with Georgia DNR, these paedomorphs will eventually metamorphose into the adult forms after a year of progenic reproduction. Paedomorphosis (as opposed to metamorphosis) is the retention of juvenile characteristics into adulthood — I can relate.

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