"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: ‘What good is it?’”--Aldo Leopold



“No matter how intently one studies the hundred little dramas of the woods and meadows, one can never learn all the salient facts about any one of them”--Aldo Leopold

Friday, January 7, 2011

To stay in the wetland or hit the woods???


This lack of wetlands to play in is getting old.  Raining a little tonight and we actually have a winter weather advisory in place for Monday--not typical SC weather.  Anyway, since I knew Bay 100 had some water (see post from 12/1/10) a couple of us went there the other day to see what we kind find.  Neither of us had every explored that bay for amphibians so we weren't sure what would be there.  We ended up finding a decent number of paedomorphic mole salamanders (Ambystoma talpoideum).  Around here mole salamanders breed in the winter and the offspring can follow one of two life history paths.  On one path they develop and metamorphose in the spring, head out to the woods, and then return to the wetland the next year (or later) and breed.  The other option is to stay in the wetland for another year and develop their reproductive characteristics while still looking like a larvae (this is the basic idea of paedomorphosis--when adults retain juvenile characteristics), get a head start on breeding the next year and then metamorphose and leave as one year olds.  This is only an option if the wetland holds water through the summer.  Must be that Bay 100 held water all summer b/c we found a good number of these paedomorphic mole salamanders.  Take a look at the two photos--on top you have a metamorph that developed directly into the terrestrial form last spring and then the paedomorphs below---note they still have gills for their aquatic life.  Nature remains very cool.  Thanks to David Scott for the great photos.

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