Thursday, March 27, 2014

We encountered two-toed amphiuma (Amphiuma means) on our first lab filed trip. We had cought it in one of the amphibian traps that Dr. Welch had put out there. The specimen we caught was close to foot and half long and the skin was extremely slimy. The sliminess of the eel could have evolved to help in eluding predators. The immature larvae have external gills but lose them once they get into adulthood. The life cycle would be considered direct development because there is no major metamorphosis occurring except for the loss of gills. The animal's behavior seemed rather docile and was not too worried about getting away from us or attacking any one. It was an amazing experience and never thought I would see something that amazing in real life. The texture of the amphiuma was extremely smooth and slimy and was hard to hang on to. It almost had a specific technique for squirming out of people's hands. The color of the body was a dark purple blue grey. Definitely a cool find and never thought stuff like that existed around me