Mudpuppy

• The size of its gills varies with the oxygen available: larger in still water, smaller in fast currents.
• It eats crayfish, fish, aquatic insects, molluscs and annelids.
• It lives in clear lakes, rivers and streams of eastern North America.
• biologíaIt retains its feathery external gills throughout adult life, never completing the metamorphosis to a land form, a phenomenon called neoteny.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (amphibian)

Habitat and environment

Clear lakes, rivers and streams of eastern North America, from southern Canada to Georgia

Birth weight

Larva 20-25 mm long on hatching

Size at birth

20 - 25 mm long at hatching

Sexual maturity

4-8 years (5-8 years most often given, at ~175-200 mm long)

Gestation / incubation

1-2 months of incubation, guarded by the female

Litter / clutch size

18 to 180 eggs per clutch (most commonly 48-60)

Sources consulted: Virginia Herpetological Society · Dimensions.com · Animal Diversity Web · JungleDragon · Animalia.bio · AnAge (genomics.senescence.info) · USGS NAS Species Profile · Wikipedia (Common mudpuppy) · Michigan Natural Features Inventory

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.