Amazing Salamanders

Amazing  Salamanders

Written by Kerrie Shanahan

Amazing Salamanders Text type: Report Level: N (30) Word count: 1,037 Content vocabulary amphibians carnivores gills glands larvae lungs metamorphosis mucus nervous system nocturnal oxygen predator prey poison salamanders species Irregularly spelled words behaviors Earth Europe half larvae palm technique tongues unique

Amazing Salamanders

Key concepts • Salamanders are amphibians that have specific characteristics.

• Salamanders need specific conditions to survive.

Reading strategy Using diagrams to confirm information in the text Paired book Salamander Surprise!

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Illustrations on pages 14 and 25 by Guy Holt.

Developed by Eleanor Curtain Publishing Designed by Derek Schneider Printed and bound in China through Colorcraft Ltd, Hong Kong Distributed in the USA by Okapi Educational Publishing Inc. Phone: 866-652-7436 Fax: 800-481-5499 Email: info@myokapi.com www.myokapi.com www.flying-start-to-literacy.com ISBN: 978-1-74320-096-4 6 7 8 9 10 11 15 16 17 18 19

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Written by Kerrie Shanahan

Contents Introduction 4 Chapter 1: What are salamanders? 6 Chapter 2: Where do salamanders live? 10 Chapter 3: How do salamanders hunt? 12 Chapter 4: How do salamanders stay safe? 16 Using poison

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Hiding 18 Tricky tails

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Chapter 5: How do salamanders grow and change?

20

Laying eggs

20

Hatching 21 Growing and changing

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Breeding 24

Conclusion 26 Glossary 27 A note from the author 28

Introduction

an ancient salamander skeleton

Salamanders are amazing animals. They look like lizards but they are not lizards.

They have lived on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs and they still look the

Fact file

same as they did back then.

Scientists have found salamander fossils that are 160 million years old.

marbled salamander There are many different types of salamanders. Some are smaller than your little finger and some are bigger than a person. Some live in caves, some in trees, and some in water.

Salamanders have developed clever ways to survive. These include how they find food, how they keep safe, and how they breed.

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5

Chapter 1

What are salamanders?

Salamanders are amphibians, like frogs and toads. Most begin their life in water, then grow into air-breathing adults. Many

salamanders go through incredible

tiger salamander

changes as they grow and become adults.

Fact file There are about 500 species of salamander.

red salamander climbing salamander

Salamanders have different colors and patterns on their skin. Some are brightly colored with spots, stripes, or other patterns.

Salamanders that live underground are often plain white or pink.

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7

Some salamanders, such as the blind salamander, have both lungs and gills.

Most of the time they use their gills to breathe.

When the amount of oxygen in the water is low, they use their lungs to breathe The largest salamander is the Chinese giant salamander. It can grow to almost six feet long.

oxygen from the air.

Some salamanders do not

Salamanders vary a lot in size. Most

have lungs or gills. They

salamanders are about four to eight inches

breathe in oxygen through

long. The smallest salamander is less than

their skin.

blind salamander

one inch long, including the tail. lungless salamander All salamanders breathe air to get oxygen into their bodies. There are four different ways that salamanders do this. Most salamanders use lungs to breathe. Others that live in water have gills that they use to take in oxygen from the water.

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Chapter 2

Salamanders have soft, moist skin.

Where do salamanders live?

Salamanders are found in the USA, South America, Europe, and Asia.

Most salamanders begin their lives in water and then live their adult lives on land.

They live in and near marshes, swamps, lakes, and creeks. They can be found under stones, on forest floors under damp leaves, or in burrows.

Fact file Salamanders need to live in a damp environment so their

As salamanders grow, they shed a layer of skin. Then they eat this skin.

smooth, soft skin does not dry out. Salamanders help fire salamander

to keep their skin moist by making slimy mucus ooze out of glands in their skin.

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11 11

Chapter 3

How do salamanders hunt?

Salamanders flick their tongues in and out rapidly to catch their prey. The prey gets stuck on the end of the salamander’s

Salamanders are carnivores – they eat other

sticky tongue. The salamander brings its

animals. They search for their food during

tongue back in and eats the prey.

the night and rest during the day. Animals that are active at night and rest during the

The giant palm salamander can flick out

day are called nocturnal animals.

its tongue fifty times faster than the blink of an eye. Its tongue can extend nearly half the length of its body.

Fact file Most salamanders eat insects, spiders, worms, and snails. Some eat frogs, fish, and even other salamanders.

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13 13

The lungless salamander has an amazing way to hunt for food. It also uses its tongue to catch its prey, but it has developed a way to make this hunting technique even better.

This salamander’s tongue is attached to a long bone. When the tongue shoots out of

lungless salamander

the salamander’s mouth, the bone comes out behind it, extending the length of the tongue.

This means the tongue can reach even further

Fact file

to grab prey.

When the salamander’s tongue is fully extended, tongue bone

tongue

it is almost as long

One type of lungless salamander is two and a half inches long.

Its tongue is two inches long.

as the salamander’s body.

When this salamander is not tip of tongue bone

using its tongue to catch prey, the tongue is stored where the salamander’s lungs would have been.

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15 15

Chapter 4

How do salamanders stay safe?

Salamanders have some amazing ways to defend and protect themselves from predators that hunt and eat them.

Using poison Many salamanders make poison to protect themselves from predators. Some salamanders have poison that comes out of glands in their skin. The poison has a bad taste so the predators that catch these salamanders will spit them out, keeping the salamanders safe.

The fire salamander sprays poison from glands along the middle of its back. The poison burns the eyes and mouth of a predator and can affect the animal’s nervous system.

Its muscles stop working and it cannot breathe.

Storks, snakes, owls, and turtles are some of the animals that hunt and eat salamanders.

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Fact file Brightly colored salamanders are often poisonous. The bright colors warn predators to stay away from them.

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Tricky tails A salamander can make its own tail fall off.

It does this if its tail gets stuck or if it gets caught by a predator. After a salamander drops its tail, the tail keeps on wriggling.

The predator is distracted and the salamander can escape.

After losing its tail, the salamander can grow a new tail.

This spotted salamander is hard to see.

Hiding

Fact file Salamanders can also regrow other body parts such as their legs and even their eyes.

Salamanders hide during the day. They hide from predators in underground holes or under leaves and bark.

Many salamanders can be hard to see because they are similar in color to their environment.

This helps to keep them safe from predators.

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This salamander is growing a new tail.

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Chapter 5

How do salamanders grow and change?

Hatching After about four weeks the salamanders hatch out of the eggs. These salamanders are called salamander larvae. They look a bit like tadpoles. They have gills to breathe

Laying eggs All salamanders lay their eggs in water. The

underwater, a long tail fin, and no legs.

eggs are covered in jelly and are attached

As soon as salamander larvae hatch, they

to sticks or water plants.

are able to look after themselves. They use

This helps to keep

their strong tail fins to swim through the

the eggs safe until they hatch.

Fact file

Usually the mother looks after the eggs, but in some live on land lay species, such as the Japanese giant salamander, the father their eggs in water looks after the eggs. and leave their eggs Salamanders that

water hunting for food.

salamander larvae

to hatch by themselves.

Salamanders that live in water look after their eggs until they hatch.

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salamander eggs 21

Growing and changing Salamander larvae look very different from adult salamanders. To become adults, their bodies must go through incredible changes.

This change is called metamorphosis.

Fact file One type of salamander called the axolotl does not change Metamorphosis as it grows into an adult. begins when the It stays in the larval state salamander larvae its whole life. It uses its gills to breathe are about three in water. weeks old.

First they grow front legs.

Then they grow back legs.

Then their tail fins become thickened tails.

Most salamanders develop lungs instead of gills and then move out of the water onto land. Their skin changes into its adult coloring.

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Breeding

But other salamanders must travel a long

Each year most adult salamanders return to

way to do this. This type of salamander

the pond or swamp where they hatched to

uses its strong sense of smell to find the

mate and lay their eggs.

exact place where it began its life. Once it

For some salamanders

gets to the spot where it hatched, it finds a

Fact file The male salamander

waves its tail in a kind of dance to show the female it is ready to mate.

this is easy because

mate and lays its eggs.

they live near where they hatched.

Salamander life cycle adult salamander

laying eggs

This newt is laying its eggs on a tree root 24 underwater. A newt is a type of salamander.

larvae

eggs 25 25

Conclusion

Glossary

Salamanders are amazing animals. They

amphibian A cold-blooded animal with

have lived on Earth for millions of years and

smooth skin and a backbone that often

are found in many different countries. There

lays its eggs in water.

are hundreds of different types of salamanders,

gills Organs that let animals breathe

all with their own unique look and behaviors.

underwater

Salamanders have developed characteristics

gland An organ or cells that produce liquids

that give them the best chance of survival.

in the body

They have amazing ways of finding food and

larva A newly hatched animal whose body

keeping safe from predators.

will go through many changes as it grows

metamorphosis The changing of an animal’s body as it grows into an adult

nervous system The system of nerves in the body that carries messages to and from the brain

species A group of living things that are the same in many ways 26

fire salamander

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FLYING START TO LITERACY

A note from the author

Early Emergent Stage

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To write this book about salamanders, I needed to find out information about them.

As I researched salamanders, I kept discovering more and more incredible facts about these animals. I listened to David Attenborough, a well-known naturalist, talk about salamanders on a radio science show. I also looked at many, many websites on the Internet about salamanders.

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