Marbled newt

Yesterday, I played with my labels a bit on this blog. I'm hoping I can make searching for animals on it a little bit more friendly. I'm still playing with them at this point. Oh I should probably note for the "weird bug" label I'm going for land based invertebrates I would be pleased to find under a rock rather then Hemipetra (not that there are not impressively weird Hemipetra) or even really Arthropods. I'd also take the "cute animal" label with care I'm told I'm not a good judge of this. If there is a manner of sorting you would like to see let me know.

Art

Goal for the week 17.75 hours

Today

still sanding

Animal

photo by anpena

The marbled newt (Triturus marmoratus) is found throughout much of France and Spain. The females are much larger then the males, but the males grow an impressive crest during the mating season. Newts have an amazing ability to regenerate limbs and sometimes eyes and organs. They also seem to be some what vulnerable to the conditions that cause frogs to grow extra legs. In frogs this is caused by Ribeiroia ondatrae, a trematode parasite, it is found in American newts and may be found in this newt as well. I have a found a video I will be putting at the bottom showing one of these newts with seven legs. According to a study by Diego-Rasilla and Luengo in 2002 marbled newts find their breeding pools by visually orienting themselves based on the position of stars. The study put them under  the condition of a misleading magnetic field and in several night sky conditions and they were found to be able to orient themselves when stars were clearly visible. 

Crested male in the breeding season

video of a 7 legged marbled newt