Japanese Fire-bellied Newt

• regeneraciónIt can regrow not only limbs but parts of the eye, the lens included, an exceptional feat of ocular regeneration among vertebrates.
• Its skin contains tetrodotoxin, the same lethal neurotoxin as the pufferfish, and when threatened it adopts an arched posture that shows off its scarlet belly as a warning.
• It is a benchmark model in regenerative medicine: it can regenerate whole limbs, its jaw, its spinal cord, heart tissue and the lens of its eye, the last of these more than a dozen times over its life with no loss of quality.
• It has flown into space: individuals of this species took part in regeneration experiments aboard Japanese space missions to study the effect of microgravity.
• Its red belly advertises poison: it accumulates tetrodotoxin, the same neurotoxin as the pufferfish, in its skin and organs.
• It does not make it itself: it obtains it from its diet, and individuals raised in captivity on controlled food turn out far less toxic, or not toxic at all.
• When threatened it adopts the unken reflex, just like the European fire-bellied toad, though they are different groups: a case of convergence between a newt and an anuran.
• It regenerates limbs, tail, jaw, lens and parts of the heart and brain, even as an adult and repeatedly, which makes it an important research model for regeneration.
• It can live more than twenty-five years, a remarkable longevity for an amphibian of its size.
• It is endemic to Japan and is listed as Near Threatened owing to the loss of traditional rice paddies and ponds.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (amphibian)

Habitat & environment

Pools, rice fields, slow streams and mountain ponds of Japan

Sexual maturity

2.5 years

Gestation / incubation

20 days

Litter / clutch size

200

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynops_pyrrhogaster