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You are here: Home / Animals / Do all Salamanders Lose their Gills and Develop Lungs and can they Breathe Underwater?

Do all Salamanders Lose their Gills and Develop Lungs and can they Breathe Underwater?

June 11, 2020 by Karen Hill

Most salamanders have gills during their larval stage.

They live in water and, like fish, breathe underwater. As they reach maturity, which can take years in some species, they lose the gills, develop lungs, and leave the water.

But some types of salamanders never mature and live their entire lives in the larval stage. They keep their gills, stay in water, and breed there, without ever physically taking on adult characteristics like tougher skin and lungs.

Some of these salamanders, like the axolotl, stay in their larval stage because important growth chemicals like iodine are missing from their watery environments.

However, some cave-dwelling salamanders remain in their young forms regardless of outside influences.

We know some people like that as well.

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Filed Under: Animals

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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