Zoology
research team discovers potentially primeval chewing behavior in salamandrids
Date: March 22, 2019
Source: Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena
The
Italian Crested Newt -- Triturus
carnifex -- eats anything and everything it can overpower. Earthworms,
mosquito larvae and water fleas are on its menu, but also snails, small fish
and even its own offspring. A research team led by Dr Egon Heiss of Friedrich
Schiller University in Jena (Germany) has studied the newt's chewing behaviour
and has made an astounding discovery.
Triturus carnifex is
an amphibian of the order Caudata and is a true salamander. "According to
the textbooks, amphibians swallow their prey whole, but we have been able to
refute this," says Heiss. Together with doctoral student Daniel Schwarz
and Dr Nicolai Konow of the University of Massachusetts, Heiss has succeeded in
proving that the crested newts do actually chew their prey, but in a way that
is different from that of most other land-based vertebrates. The researchers
have now presented their findings in the specialist publication Journal of
Experimental Biology.
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