By: Cassidy Delamarter, University Communications and Marketing
After closely studying wandering salamanders for four years, a doctoral candidate at the OB体育官网 (USF) discovered the amphibians have mastered 鈥減arachuting鈥� down the world鈥檚 tallest trees. Christian Brown鈥檚 study, in Current Biology, is the first to reveal aerial behaviors in the species.
Brown describes it as a newly discovered mode of locomotion for salamanders.
鈥淎 surprising and efficient way to get around. That鈥檚 what we鈥檝e got here,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e expecting salamanders to crawl or swim, but you鈥檙e certainly not expecting them to parachute and be able to control their descent and move horizontally in the air and glide.鈥�
While there are hundreds of species of salamanders across the globe, aerial behavior has never been observed until now in the 4-inch wandering salamander Aneides vagrans, which is native to California. The small but daring amphibians live in the redwood canopy in the on Earth 鈥� nearly 400 feet off the ground. The descent from the canopy to the ground is a feat they鈥檝e evolved to master.
The wandering salamanders whip their tail, right their body and maintain an upward posture to glide down the trees. Instead of spinning out of control, these creatures have m