We surprised each other in the garden today. Best guess is Notopthalmus viridescens, but the species has a lot of variation within the population apparently.
A Red Eft might be more applicable. It may become an Eastern Newt if it’s smart and makes good efting decisions. Amphibians are considered a different creature through its development cycle. The three main stages of an Eastern Newt are:
1-Larval stage is aquatic based. (Tadpole)
2-Red Eft stage is terrestrial based (This beautiful creature)
3-Eastern Newt stage is aquatic based (Same geometry but more drab greens and browns)
You usually only see the Eft because of the glaring red. The other stages are mostly aquatic and well camoflaged.
Amphibians, butterflies… Creatures that metamorph are particularly neat to me.
People who know these kinds of things are particularly neat to me (like you!) I know they have a long life cycle if they make good decisions but didn’t realize they were considered different creatures based on their developmental stage
In the Newts case, it is because of the metamorphosis. That process changes the larvaes gills to juvenile lungs, and then the second metamorphosis replaces the juveniles lungs with adult gills again. This forces the change of habitat, since you gotta match the stomping grounds with the plumbing and also a change of food. It truly is a different lifeform with a different skillset, different needs and different goals at each stage.
A lifeform figuring out to drastically reform its own body twice over its campaign just doesn’t seem to be an idea that would spawn from nature, to me anyway. It’s one of the best argument for intelligent design in my opinion. Truly remarkable.
I land more on the “ten iterations on every iteration that works” model of evolutionary pressures and the arms/gills race that ensues but I think this is appropriate regardless
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a newt or salamander in the wild before lol only lizards and geckos. So cute!
We’re lucky in that we have two ponds and many seasonal vernal pools in our wooded property, so we get to see a lot of really cool amphibians
Claude AI agrees. First time I’ve used an AI chat bot to identify something in a photo.
