Page "Amphibian" Paragraph 35

The order Caudata ( from the Latin cauda meaning " tail ") consists of the salamanders, elongated, low-slung animals that mostly resemble lizards in form, though this is a symplesiomorphic trait and the two groups are no more closely related than salamanders are to mammals.

Salamanders lack claws, have a scale-free skin, either smooth or covered with tubercles, and a tail that is usually flattened from side to side and often finned.

They range in size from the Chinese giant salamander ( Andrias davidianus ), which can grow to a length of, to the diminutive Thorius pennatulus from Mexico which seldom exceeds.

Salamanders are distributed widely in the Holarctic region of the northern hemisphere.

The family Plethodontidae are also found in Central and South America north of the Amazon Basin.

Urodela is a name sometimes used for all the extant species of salamander.

Members of several families of salamanders have become paedomorphic and either fail to complete their metamorphosis or retain some larval characteristics as adults.

Most salamanders are under long.

They may be terrestrial or aquatic and many spend part of the year in each habitat.

When on land, they mostly spend the day hidden under stones or logs or in dense vegetation, emerging in the evening and night to forage for worms, insects and other invertebrates.