#collections of newts and salamanders and toads and all that

[lighthouseas]

full disclosure. in the world of tsad, josephine elizabeth mouse wheeler (a.k.a. mike's porch cat) is NOT cute by any means. mike thinks she is, but she's actually like. yk those raggedy ass dishcloths? yeah imagine that as her fur and then she also only has one eye. see also: this cat has been living under a muddy porch for the better part of a year. this girl REEKS. mike loves her though. she is his little creachur.

[woodlnds]

Children of Anura - ( ideas and concepts )

A xenofiction collection/story that follows a young female american bullfrog named Cricket, who starts off as an egg and follows her journey into adulthood.

Below is a WIP of the bullfrog dictionary.

(updated periodically)

“A swim at wanelight.” - [© 2023]

Anurani: The generalized language of frogs and toads. Each species has their own dialect, and even differing populations within the same species may have their own vocal quirks; similar to people. Salamanders, newts, and caecilians have their own languages- but any and all amphibians can learn to speak one another’s.

Anura: An important figure with most modern amphibians, past and present. She is rumored to have been the very “first” amphibian, who is believed to have lived hundreds of millions of years ago. She is also a representation of water, prosperity, heath, fertility, and life within amphibian culture. Known as Ichthyostega by humans.

Season of Song: The time of year when bullfrogs awaken and flora begins to sprout. Frogs spend their time finding mates and celebrating new growth and life. Akin to Spring.

Season of Spawn: The time of year when the sun is at its hottest and highest, tadpoles begin to hatch, while first or second year tadpoles develop limbs. Life and food is plenty. Akin to Summer.

Season of Sedentary: The time of year when the land begins to fall cold, and plants slowly wither and die. Food is scarce and the frogs become lethargic. Akin to Autumn.

Season of Sleep: The time of year when bullfrogs brumate at the bottom of a pond or creek, and earth is frozen. Snow begins to fall and they stay asleep until spring. Akin to Winter.

The Long Drowse: Brumation, the amphibian and reptile term for torpor and hibernation.

Brume: The astral or spiritual remains of an animal after they have passed. Akin to spirits.

Safepool: A place where bullfrogs gather to breed and live. Can be anything from creeks, ponds, fens, swamps, vernal pools, lakes, etc.

Stalwart: The largest, strongest, and healthiest of a group of male bullfrogs. Usually possesses the best patch of territory within a safepool in terms of food and shelter for offspring. Will dominate other frogs in regards to land, food, and mating rights. The highest ranking title a male bullfrog can have.

Dowager: The largest and healthiest of a group of female bullfrogs. Has seasoned more offspring than others, and often dominates most of the female frogs in terms of food and shelter. The highest ranking title a female bullfrog can have.

Colony: The general bodily population of bullfrogs in a safepool.

Wogs: Infant bullfrogs; tadpoles. (1 day to 1 year of age)

Tads: Tadpoles who have began to develop arms and legs. (2-3 years of age)

Freshies: Subadult bullfrogs who have fully and freshly metamorphized. (3-4 years of age)

Bull: A male bullfrog (5-10 years of age)

Sow: A female bullfrog (5-10 years of age)

Snuggery: A safe place designated for eggs and tadpoles inside the safepool, often in a deeper area tucked away from potential land or aquatic predators. Akin to a nursery.

Drifter: A bullfrog who does not live within a stable body of water or territory; a wanderer. Not many frogs commit to this risky lifestyle.

Croonsong: A special and unique mating call that every male bullfrog performs come springtime.

Crooner: A slang term for male bullfrog who often has the best sounding call and voice among others.

Nullcroaker: A slang term for cursing. Often used towards other bullfrogs.

Prill: Waste/droppings. May also be used as a curse word.

Slipping skin: To shed one’s skin. Molting.

Brume-warming: To sunbathe, absorbing heat from the sun and warming the soul.

Tag-legger: A best friend, companion.

Squark/Squarking: The defensive cry that a bullfrog emits when in danger. Can be defensive or offensive, and depends on the tone.

Freshcatch: Fresh prey; often insects, fish, and other small organisms.

Sourcatch: Toxic, old, or inedible prey.

Brutebelly: A cannibal. Done by choice or when opportunity arises. May occur more during the fall or winter when food is especially scarce. Many bullfrogs look down upon this behavior unless absolutely necessary.

Drub/Drubbing: A physical fight between bullfrogs, often intense and aggressive. Many males during mating season will often get into drubs with each other.

Wakelight: Akin to morning.

Weelight: Akin to noon.

Wanelight: Akin to evening.

Wakedark: Akin to dusk.

Weedark: Akin to midnight.

Wanedark: Akin to dawn.

Fink: Predatory animals, enemies of bullfrogs. Generalized for all predatory species.

Flee-The-Fink: A traditional frog game in which one player takes on the role of predator, and the others pretend to hide. Similar to hide-and-seek.

Bluff-drubbing: A traditional frog game in which young juvenile bullfrogs wrestle for fun. May also help with practice when the time eventually comes for them to choose a mate and battle for territory and dominance.

Gravesick: A fatal illness that often spreads to frogs and other amphibians, sometimes fish and reptiles. Known as Ranavirus by humans. The mortality rate is almost always deadly.

— to be continued: definitions are unfinished —

[wtf-triassic]

Triadobatrachus massinoti

By Scott Reid

Etymology: Triassic frog

First Described By: Piveteau, 1936

Classification: Biota, Archaea, Proteoarchaeota, Asgardarchaeota, Eukaryota, Neokaryota, Scotokaryota Opimoda, Podiata, Amorphea, Obazoa, Opisthokonta, Holozoa, Filozoa, Choanozoa, Animalia, Eumetazoa, Parahoxozoa, Bilateria, Nephrozoa, Deuterostomia, Chordata, Olfactores, Vertebrata, Craniata, Gnathostomata, Eugnathostomata, Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii, Rhipidistia, Tetrapodomorpha, Eotetrapodiformes, Elpistostegalia, Stegocephalia, Temnospondyli, Euskelia, Dissorophoidea, Xerodromes, Amphibamiformes, Lissamphibia, Batrachia, Salientia, Triadobatrachidae

Referred Species: T. massinoti

Status: Extinct 

Time and Place: Approximately 251–250 million years ago, in the late Induan to early Olenekian of the Early Triassic.

Triadobatrachus is only known from the Sakamena Formation in Northern Madagascar.

Physical Description: Triadobatrachus superficially resembles modern frogs, it was only around 10 cm long, had a broad head and a very reduced tail. Its skeleton had many features associated only with frogs among amphibians, including a very frog-like skull with big eyes and their characteristically elongated hips. Soft tissues preserved around the fossil even show that it had the wide, round body of frogs too. However, the skeleton of Triadobatrachus differed from living frogs in a few major ways. It had much more vertebrae than living frogs, 26 compared to the maximum 4–9 of frogs alive today, giving it a much longer body, and these vertebrae had ribs, unlike living frogs. Its legs were shorter and more squat, especially its back legs, which were hardly any longer than its front ones, making Triadobatrachus incapable of hopping despite its derived hips. Even the stumpy tail was still more prominent than in living frogs, and may have even retained some degree of mobility. To sum it up, Triadobatrachus more or less looked like a stretched out frog with short legs. Think of a horned toad lizard but with more of the toad part and less horned.

Diet: Like other frogs, Triadobatrachus was probably carnivorous, likely feeding on invertebrates like insects and other arthropods, molluscs, worms, and perhaps even any small vertebrates it could fit in its mouth.

Behavior: One of the most standout features of Triadobatrachus is that it couldn’t have hopped like modern frogs. Instead, Triadobatrachus would have walked around on land more like a salamander, although it is unknown just how much time it would have spent on land in the first place anyway. It was clearly amphibious, and it probably swam by kicking its back legs like frogs, unlike the undulation of newts and salamanders. It would have spawned like living amphibians too, laying shell-less eggs in water that hatched into tadpoles and underwent metamorphosis just like modern frogs. Otherwise, its behaviour is a mystery. We don’t even know if it would have croaked or not.

Ecosystem: Not much is directly known about the ecosystem Triadobatrachus inhabited, as the only known fossil had been washed out to sea along the coast. The intact body at least implies the body wasn’t transported far, so Triadobatrachus probably lived in coastal floodplain rivers and swamps. Various other temnospondyl amphibians are known from the area, including Edingeralla, Deltacephalus, Mahavisaurus, Wantzsosaurus and Tertremoides. Despite being amphibians, many of these temnospondyls were likely euryhaline, meaning they could tolerate salt water and inhabited the coastline, something only a few living amphibians are even remotely capable of standing. The peculiar aquatic reptile Hovasaurus lived along the coasts, although it’s unknown if it ever crossed paths with the freshwater frogs, and terrestrial procolophonid parareptiles were also present. Plant remains suggest the environment was tropical and semi-arid with a monsoonal climate that supported conifer forests along with seed ferns, horsetails and clubmosses.

Other: Triadobatrachus is one of the only known stem-frogs, along with the polish Czatkobatrachus, and is certainly the oldest. The early evolution of Lissamphibia (all living amphibians) is poorly understood, particularly whether their ancestry lies in the temnospondyls or some other “amphibians”. Triadobatrachus doesn’t solve this debate, although it does show similarities to the Permian amphibamiforms like Gerobatrachus, supporting the temnospondyl affinity for batrachians (the frogs and salamanders) amongst dissorophoids.

Before they were considered to be temnospondyls, lissamphibians were often thought to be lepospondyls, a probably paraphyletic or even polyphyletic (i.e. unnatural) collection of “amphibians” on the tetrapod tree more derived than temnospondyls (some may even be honest to goodness amniotes!). This picture is complicated by caecilians, which at one point were suggested to be lepospondyls while batrachians were temnospondyls, making Lissamphibia polyphyletic! The story got even stranger after a little Triassic amphibian, Chinlestegophis, was discovered in 2017 and was considered to be a stem-caecilian. Chinlestegophis pulled caecilians back into temnospondyls with the other lissamphibians, but at almost opposite ends of the temnospondyl tree—batrachians in amphibamiforms and caecilians in with the stereospondyls related to the giant metoposaurs! So lissamphibians may all be temnospondyls...but also polyphyletic, unless nearly all of Temnospondyli is classed as lissamphibians and becomes part of the crown group. This would also mean our small modern amphibians both independently miniaturised from the much larger, classic predatory amphibians of the Palaeozoic and Triassic. What a concept.

Regardless of temnospondyl taxonomic troubles, Triadobatrachus is a perfect transitional form from more generalised amphibians to the highly specialised anatomy of frogs. Particularly, it shows that some of their unique anatomical adaptations evolved before they were able to hop, and may have functioned for other activities like swimming. The almost complete preservation of a skeleton as delicate as one of a small amphibian is a remarkable find, let alone one that represents a perfect transitional form for a group of animals whose evolutionary history is shrouded in mystery, and makes Triadobatrachus a fantastic find, no matter how unassuming it may be.

~ By Scott Reid

Sources under the Cut 

Ascarrunz, Eduardo; Rage, Jean-Claude; Legreneur, Pierre; Laurin, Michel (2016). "Triadobatrachus massinoti, the earliest known lissamphibian (Vertebrata: Tetrapoda) re-examined by µCT-Scan, and the evolution of trunk length in batrachians". Contributions to Zoology. 58 (2): 201–234.

Lires, A. I., Soto, I. M., & Gómez, R. O. (2016). Walk before you jump: new insights on early frog locomotion from the oldest known salientian. Paleobiology, 42(4), 612-623.

Maganuco, S., Steyer, J.S., Pasini, G., Boulay, M., Lorrain, S., Bénéteau, A., Auditore, M. (2009). “An exquisite specimen of Edingerella madagascarensis (Temnospondyli) from the Lower Triassic of NW Madagascar; cranial anatomy, phylogeny, and restorations”. Società italiana di scienze naturali.

Pardo, Jason D.; Small, Bryan J.; Huttenlocker, Adam K. (2017-07-03). "Stem caecilian from the Triassic of Colorado sheds light on the origins of Lissamphibia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (27): E5389–E5395

Piveteau, J. (1936). "Une forme ancestrale des amphibiens anoures dans le Trias inférieur de Madagascar". Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences. 202: 1607–1608.

Rage,J-C; Roček, Z. (1989). "Redescription of Triadobatrachus massinoti (Piveteau, 1936) an anuran amphibian from the Early Triassic". Palaeontographica Abteilung A. 206: 1–16.

Roček , Z., Rage, J-C. (2000). "13. Proanuran Stages (Triadobatrachus, Czatkobatrachus)". In Heatwole, H.; Carroll, R. L. (eds.). Amphibian Biology. Paleontology: The Evolutionary History of Amphibians. 4. Surrey Beatty & Sons. pp. 1284–1294.

Ročková, H., Roček Z. (2005). “Development of the pelvis and posterior part of the vertebral column in the Anura”. Journal of Anatomy. 206(1): 17–35.

Xing, L., Stanley, E. L., Bai, M., & Blackburn, D. C. (2018). “The earliest direct evidence of frogs in wet tropical forests from Cretaceous Burmese amber”. Scientific reports, 8(1), 8770.

[seotalisus22]

Exotic Reptiles for Sale

Shop our online store huge selection of rare and exotic reptiles for sale. You can buy live snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, turtles. You can trust it will safely be delivered to your doorstep. We are reptile enthusiasts who believe captive breeding is integral to the future of the market, as it not only helps protect wild herp populations - reptile shops near me.

Naturally their true place is to live in the wild. Unfortunately there are many species of reptiles sold in pet stores these days, and many of them are still being taken from the wild in order to start breeding programmes. Reptiles respond the best to natural sunlight, and gentle quality human interaction on a daily basis. Be careful where you obtain - reptile websites.

Importantly for the welfare of your reptile is a vivarium or enclosure that is functional and works best for your pet, not one that is based on how good it looks. Don't expect your cold blooded pet to run up to you as soon as you walk through the door with his tail wagging frantically. He will probably show no sign of being happy to see you. All animals love the company of human beings, all are sentient and equal to humans and all deserve a chance to be able to return their affection, which mirrors the way you treat them. For more information, please visit our site https://talis-us.com/collections/reptile-and-amphibian

[lovelyrhink]

for @rhettsbabe bc customers suck

once upon a time, three witches raised a young boy in the woods. he lived a happy life, albeit with not much of a father figure, save for the tales of old wizards and kings his mothers told him, but happy all the same. his mothers loved him very much, treasured him dearly, and gave him the best possible life they could in their given circumstances.

as they were outcasted by the kingdom, they were left to practice magic - dark or otherwise - in the shadowed cover of the spooky woods. they had a little cottage and a massive, mystical garden, as well as acres and acres of forest for little rhett to play in. he made friends with nature, the animals, and the spirits, and as he grew up at the hands of three wise sorcerers, he learned all he could about magic in place of a formal education. he knew of spiraling green smoke and cauldrons, jars of newt’s eyes and the purple leaves of the hoot-hoot tree, and anything else the witches kept in their collection. from simple charms to intricate casts, he was the three witches’ son and apprentice, and what he lacked in mythical bloodline, he made up for in spirit.

indeed, he was not born of the three witches. they’d found him in a basket floating down the river, cursed the people who’d left him, and raised him as their own. for the first ten years of his life, they hid him away and told nary a soul that they had a human child. all the same, rhett was curious and, sadly, incredibly lonely, so it was only a matter of time until he was asking about other children.

though most of it was terrifyingly mysterious, the forest did attract a few brave children here and there, and when they came, rhett watched from his hidden cottage with big eyes, nose at the windowsill. he saw how they played with each other, teased each other, touched and kissed and laughed. they were so golden, with pink cheeks and bright smiles, so different than the ghosts, ghouls, and woodland creatures he’d made friends with. he loved his supernatural world, of course, but he longed for human friendship.

so, when he was ten, he asked his mothers if he could go to “school,” something he heard the other kids talking about as they drew spirals in the dirt with twigs and chased each other ‘round wise old redwoods. the three witches were hesitant at first, as they wanted to protect their son from all the cruelty humans could impose, but miriam, the oldest and wisest of them, decided it was the right thing to do.

“he’s a human, clarissa,” she told her middle sister. 

antoinette, the youngest, huffed. “he’s not like other humans!”

“that’s because we’ve never showed him any different. but he is, in fact, human, and we can’t take that part of him. he needs to know the world in which he came from.”

“the world which cast him away, left him to drown?” clarissa snapped.

but miriam was calm. “we’ve gone over this, sisters. we don’t know his birth parents’ intentions, perhaps his mother couldn’t care for him and hoped the waters would rock him to safety.”

miriam’s sisters fell quiet, not entirely convinced but loving rhett too much to argue. he was safe with them now, had been for the last ten years, and now it was time for him to find his own way.

clarissa flicked her finger at the cauldron in the fireplace and a long wooden ladle began to stir itself. as eternal shapeshifters, the three witches knew there would always be something they couldn’t give their precious son - the mortal experience. so they finally agreed that on his half-birthday, they’d send him to the kingdom school. 

his backstory? he came from another town and lived far at the edge of the village. he had two loving parents, marcus and amelia, and a dog named beebee. if anyone asked to come home with him (though the witches doubted anyone would, as rhett was a strange child, regardless of his magic power), he’d have to decline.

naturally, when the time came, rhett had little on his mind in regards to mystery and just wanted to meet a friend. he needed to meet a friend. he sought a best friend, a real one. not just toads and salamanders. 

on rhett’s first day of school, halfway through the school year, he slung a satchel over his shoulder, bid his mothers goodbye, and bounded off towards the town. clarissa held her pointed nose up high, antoinette cried, and miriam waved him off fondly before consoling her sisters. “he’s old enough now,” she said. “he’ll be fine.”

and in fact, he was fine. the schoolhouse teacher received rhett with a note attached from his nonexistent father and a gracious, bemused smile, introduced him to the class, and pointed to an empty seat beside a sweet-faced boy with big blue eyes. rhett was tittering with excitement as he wove through the old oak desks, and as soon as he slipped into his seat, he cast his eyes out the low stone window and admired the town beyond.

on the distant horizon sat the castle, proud and regal, a bustling castle town moving like clockwork below it. there was so much color, much more than the greens and browns of the forest, and everyone looked so strange. while his mothers had shown him storybooks of princes and princesses, these people looked nothing like that. some wore flour-sacks for clothes and pushed carts piled high with radishes along the muddy roads, while others clip-clopped on low creme heels down cobblestone pathways. there were men and women and children, little dogs and stray cats, just swatches of color and movement beyond the school’s walls, and rhett was nearly overwhelmed. 

he was about to drown in his own wonder when he felt a tap on his arm. he turned, and the boy sat beside him gave him a big white smile. it made rhett’s heart warm and stomach flutter, and suddenly he didn’t feel so scared.

“you came from another town?” the boy asked. his voice was even softer than his eyes, and rhett felt a strange heat bloom in his cheeks.

“yes, i have a dog.”

“a dog!” the boy’s eyes twinkled. “i like dogs.”

rhett didn’t know what to say to that, so he just stared at the boy quietly. 

the boy wasn’t fazed, though, and stared right on back. they held the gaze for a moment, and if rhett hadn’t been trained in magic, he might not have noticed the electric current sparking between their hearts. he did, though, as well as the spirits shifting beyond the veil, rousing as if on the cusp of something predetermined.

“it’s hard being new,” the boy then whispered as their teacher turned to the blackboard and raised a stalk of chalk. he leaned close and put his hand on rhett’s arm. it felt good. “you’re gonna need a friend,” he then said. “i’m link. nice to meet you,” and held out his hand.

rhett took it. “rhett.” 

perhaps, rhett thought, loneliness was a bulletproof precursor to love. 

then link smiled at rhett, rhett smiled at link, and the fates were sealed. 

the end.

[not-just-any-fangirl]

YOUR HP HEADCANONS GIVE LIFE nalu tho. She finds out he's in love with her because they were in potions together and she asked him to describe what the love potion he made smelled like and he was so entranced and just THIRSTY for Lucy he just actually says the truth and she's like "wait I use Dove soap and I had coffee this morning and wait I read paperback books too oh. OH" and he just sputters and can't believe he ACTUALLY SAID IT OUT LOUD and Levy gapes WHAT ARE YOURS THO PLS

Ok so i’m not sure if you meant what my favourite smells would be (I am tragically single so nothing lmao) so I’m going to assume you mean how do I picture nalu getting together 

(Your’s is supes adorable tho and we can never have too much nalu fluff so plz write yours

It starts in Year Six

They have been in mutual pining/love since year three. 

Natsu fell first a week into year two when Lucy jump kicked a boy that was trying to hex a first years pet frog. No teacher believed Lucy could be so violent and so her house received no punishment. When Natsu asked her how she managed to get away with it Lucy looked at him slyly and said “Teachers always take your side when you’re the good kid bcus you never do anything bad, so no one believes it when you actually do something bad” before just walking away to class and humming to herself

Lucy’s slytherin heritage and Natsu’s love were confirmed on the same day praise

Lucy took longer but she found her way there. She can’t pinpoint a moment but suddenly all the prospects her father brought to her for marriage turned from resigned disapproval to outright disgust

They weren’t sweet enough or goofy enough or too boring or not good enough with animals or no cute obsession with fire or pink hair 

ANyway

Everyone else knew

And they had to watch these fools dance around one another for yeAR S and there may or may not have been a school wide betting pool on for when they would get together. 

Cana started it, Gildarts was the first to lose, and surprisingly Evergreen was the one to win it

Even tho she was no longer enrolled and couldn’t technically collect

So Year Six:

Lucy is renting a small cottage in Magnolia, a town a short train ride away from Hogwarts and suspiciously close to forest known for its wild and rare animals. Her and her father had a... disagreement... about bloodstatus and what she would be doing after Hogwarts.

Natsu is basically living with her

Despite her weak protests

One day in the middle of advanced potions Natsu and Lucy are working seamlessly without even looking at one another, while somehow still bickering endlessly about whether to follow the book (Natsu Dragneel I cannot afford to experiment on another potion I need good grades to keep my job at the Brewery in town and I need my job to pay for rent unless you’d enjoy being homeless) (But Lushi this would mature much quicker if we used 3/4′s newt eye instead of 3/8′s and then substituted bone of Jackle in for the witch’s bane) and Levy makes a comment about them acting like a married couple

Natsu: Pshh, that’s stupid

Lucy: Yeah Levy, we work much better than any married people we know

Natsu: Besides how can act like a married couple if I haven't even bought Lucy’s ring yet

Lucy: what

Levy: what

Juvia: what

Porly: what - also Mr. Dragneel your potion is set to explode if you don’t add wart of the greater toad or some other base

Natsu: ah shit

Lucy: yes

Natsu: what

Levy: wHAT

Juvia: WH A T

Levy and Juvia: OH MY GOD

Levy -screaming out the door into the corridor and in the general area of the open door where Gajeel and Gray are in their Gryff/Slytherin class- :GET YOUR BLOODY ASSES IN HERE THESE TWO BELLENDS JUST GOT ENGAGED WITHOUT EVEN DATING

Juvia: -is crying too hard to understand past howling sobs-

*Natsu’s potion explodes*

Juvia will not stop hinting for Gray to propose for MONTHS and Gray’s old hatred for Natsu reappears with a vengeance bcus he can’t even talk to the Slytherin house mermaids without being swarmed with proposal questions/advice

How does Juvia even know how to speak in the mermaid native tongue???? and why do they protect her like their own?? Like sure she found a way to transfigure parts of her body to water and can spend hours in the lake

Gray has be awoken by the sound of screaming first years as Juvia swim by their glass under the lake. 

He groggily blows his girlfriend a morning kiss, and then a swarm of mermaids start violently signing for him to put a ring on it

being Gray is suffering

This prompts Gajeel to finally ask Levy on a date as he will not be outdone by his dumbass cousin. He will be twice, no, triple the boyfriend Salamander could be!

Levy is just thankful as they have essentially been dating for over two years (including kissing) but Gajeel was too dense to actually connect the label with their actions

She is surprised at how much of a romantic he is though and understand that dating Gajeel and having a thing with him are very different things

This sparks a sort of ‘date war’ amongst the boys as to who can woo their partner best. 

Gajeel always fucking wins and no one understands how??????

And that’s how Natsu and Lucy get together! Sting and Rouge actually get married before nalu tho, as both settle into their careers before getting married. Natsu becomes a specialist in fire beasts and has to travel quite a bit, and Lucy writes books of their adventures and details the beasts. Her book and thesis on the biology and the resulting anthrozoology of the regions become part of the class mandatory list at Hogwarts. 

[ezatluba]

Fire salamanders in Europe are extremely susceptible to a fungus from Asia.

A deadly salamander disease just got a lot scarier

Erik Stokstad

Apr. 19, 2017 

Europe's largest and best known salamander species, the fire salamander, is falling victim to a deadly fungus, and new research is making scientists more pessimistic about its future. A 2-year study of a population in Belgium, now entirely wiped out, has revealed that these amphibians can't develop immunity to the fungus, as was hoped. To make matters worse, it turns out the fungus creates a hardy spore that can survive in water for months and also stick to birds' feet, offering a way for it to spread rapidly across the continent. Two other kinds of amphibians, both resistant to the disease, also act as carriers for the highly infectious spores.

"This is terrible news," says geneticist Matthew Fisher of Imperial College London, who studies the fungus but was not involved in the new research. "This isn't a problem that's going to go away. It's a problem that's going to get worse."

The pathogen, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), is a chytrid fungus, a type that lives in damp or wet environments and typically consumes dead organic matter. Bsal infects and eats the skin of salamanders, causing lesions, apathy, loss of appetite, and eventually death. Over the past few decades, a related fungus, B. dendrobatidis (Bd), has struck hard at amphibian populations around the world, particularly in the Americas, Australia, Spain, and Portugal. More than 200 species of frogs and toads are thought to have gone extinct, including many kinds of Costa Rica's striking stream-breeding toads.

Bsal was identified in a nature reserve in the Netherlands in 2013 after fire salamanders started dying with ulcers and sores similar to those caused by Bd. Fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) grow up to 35 centimeters long, can live more than 40 years, and hunt insects and other small prey in forest streams. Their bright yellow spots warn predators of poison around their head and back. In the Dutch nature reserve, the population plummeted 99.9%. The fungus is thought to have arrived in Europe via salamanders or newts imported from Asia for the pet trade. Bsal has since been found in Belgium and Germany in both fire salamanders and alpine newts.

As soon as Bsal was spotted in Belgium in April 2014, veterinarian An Martel of Ghent University in Merelbeke, Belgium, and her colleagues began visiting every month to track the population. About 90% of the fire salamanders died within 6 months, and after 2 years all were gone. The fieldwork revealed that adult animals were more likely to get infected, which makes sense because they are in closer contact with each other—through fighting for mating and breeding, for example—than are juveniles. But the death of these adults means that the population likely won't recover.

There was no immune response detected in any of the sick animals in the lab, suggesting that it will be impossible to develop a vaccine, the team reports today in Nature. "We really wanted to find solutions to mitigate disease, to save the salamanders, but everything turned out bad," Martel says. The team had also hoped that the fungus would become less virulent—as often occurs when a pathogen reaches a new host that lacks any immunity—but that hasn't happened: Fungal spores taken from the last fire salamanders in the Belgian forest, when dripped onto the backs of healthy salamanders in the lab, were just as lethal as those collected early in the outbreak. "When they come in contact with a single spore, they will die."

This is a very important piece of work, and it's terrifying. … If [this] gets loose in the United States, it's going to be bad.

The paper has more bad news. Researchers knew that Bsal makes spores with a tiny tail called a flagellum, which propels them toward amphibians. If spores dry out, they die. Otherwise, they typically survive for a few days before being eaten by protozoa. But Martel's group discovered that Bsal makes a second type of spore that looks much hardier and is rarely eaten by protozoa. "This will make it almost impossible to eradicate the fungus from the environment," says Martel, who adds that the spores can survive in pond water for more than 2 months.

Another experiment showed that soil remained infectious for 48 hours after it was walked on by a sick salamander. In a separate lab test, the spores adhered to goose feet, suggesting they could hitchhike long distances on birds.

The group also showed that two species that share the same habitat as the fire salamander are likely carriers of the disease. Midwife toads (Alytes obstetricans) could be infected with the fungus and shed spores for a few weeks, but they didn't get sick. A high dose of the fungus killed alpine newts (Ichthyosaura alpestris), but low doses made them infectious for months without killing them. As has happened with Bd in the Americas, Bsal will lurk in these reservoirs of disease even after local populations of fire salamanders vanish. Any fire salamanders that arrive from elsewhere will likely get infected by newts or toads.  

Midwife toads, known for carrying their eggs on their back, can spread the fungus while infected, but they don't get sick.

According to results from previous infection trials, most salamander species in Europe are likely just as vulnerable to Bsal. The fire salamander has a range that extends across Europe, and the fear is that the fungus will reach endangered salamanders. With small populations, these species could more easily be driven extinct, Fisher says. "The assumption is that they are all at risk," he says, and the findings in the new paper "have really upped their risk status." Martel and European colleagues recently started monitoring for Bsal in seven countries.

It is possible to cure amphibians in the lab. For animals that can take the heat, like fire salamanders, 10 days at 25°C will kill the fungus. Other species can be cured with a combination of two drugs. But there is no practical solution for animals in the wild, especially when their habitat is contaminated with fungal spores.

Herpetologist Jaime Bosch of the National Museum of Natural History in Madrid had a rare success in eliminating a chytrid fungus from the wild. A few years ago, he and colleagues got rid of Bd on the Spanish island of Mallorca by temporarily removing some 2000 tadpoles of the Mallorcan midwife toad (Alytes muletensis) and disinfecting their ponds with powerful chemicals. But this success would be hard to replicate in less isolated locations, he says. "Right now, we are very far away from having any solution." The only hope in the meantime, Bosch and others say, is to slow the spread of the disease by ending the importation of amphibians.

The United States, a hot spot of amphibian diversity, has already taken steps in that direction. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned the import of 201 species of salamanders on the grounds that they might introduce the fungus. Joe Mendelson, a herpetologist at Zoo Atlanta, says the new research suggests the list should be expanded to include other carriers such as the toad and newt studied in the new paper. "This is a very important piece of work, and it's terrifying," he says. "If Bsal gets loose in the United States," he says, "it's going to be bad."