Amphiuma means

 Kinosternon subrubrum

Agkistrodon piscivorus

On Thursday, March 12, I went on my first Herpetology field trip. It was amazing trenching through the swamp and going through traps. We caught 8 Two-toed amphiumas (Amphiuma means)! They are notoriously difficult to grab as their skin is covered in secretion glands allowing for lots of mucus to be secreted at one time. Amphibians rely on mucus to help retain moisture and absorb water. The limb reduction of amphiumas can be seen as convergent evolution as other Families like Sirenidae have also undergone limb reduction. Along with the amphiumas, we caught countless Eastern Newts (Notophthalmus viridescens), one interesting specimen was a male who had enlarged gonads and evident black saddle along the inside of his legs. The salamanders were paedomorphic and were all in their last stage of the life cycle, as they were all living in the water with both larval characteristics, and adult characteristics. They lacked gills, but had paddle-like tails for aquatic environment. We also found a Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus) and lots of Leopard frog tadpoles. Moving away from the Urodela, we found some great examples of Reptilia. This was very surprising because Thursday was fairly cold and no sunlight- not very good conditions for Reptiles. Despite the conditions, we found some examples from the Order Testudines, Family Kinosternidae, and Genuses Kinosternon and Sternotherus. We found a live specimen, eastern mud turtle, (Kinosternon  subrubrum) and a shell belonging to a common musk turtle (Sternotherus odoratus). Along with the testudines, we also saw and captured members of the Order Squamata. I managed to catch a Carolina anole, (Anolis carolinensis), who, although normally vibrant green, was dark brown, which is possibly due to the cooler conditions and the fact that I caught it. Caw Caw seemed to be a haven for Agkistrodon piscivorus, or more commonly known as Cottonmouth, or "water moccasin". There were three of them basking on a tree in the swamp. The lack of sunlight does not deter semi-aquatic snakes and aquatic snakes from coming out; they are generally less temperamental with cooler weather. One cottonmouth was feeling a little anxious with all the intention and began shaking its tail. This is a common behavior among pit vipers or Crotalidae, and is most noticeable with rattlesnakes like Crotalus.