Chinese Giant Salamander Skull

$104.00

Giant Salamanders are native to China & are the largest amphibian in the world growing over 6 feet long and weighing up to 60 lbs. Like most salamanders, the Giant Salamander is nocturnal. Their diet consists of aquatic vertebrates as well as insects and crabs.

Description

Chinese Giant Salamander Skull Replica measures 3.8 inches. Chinese Giant Salamander Skull is museum quality polyurethane cast. Made in USA. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home décor skull, or office décor skull.

Chinese Giant Salamander or Andrias davidianus is one of the largest salamanders and one of the largest amphibians in the world. It is fully aquatic and is endemic to rocky mountain streams and lakes in the Yangtze river basin of central China.

Chinese Giant Salamander or Andrias davidianus has a large head, small eyes, and dark, wrinkly skin. Its flat, broad head has a wide mouth, round, lidless eyes, and a line of paired tubercles that run around its head and throat.

Its color is typically dark brown with a mottled or speckled pattern, but it can also be other brownish tones, dark reddish, or black. Albinos, which are white or orange, have been recorded. All species of giant salamanders produce a sticky, white skin secretion that repels predators.

Chinese giant salamander or Andrias davidianus average adult salamander weighs 55 to 66 lb. and is 3.77 ft. in length. It can reach up to 110 lb. in weight and 5.9 ft. in length, making it the largest amphibian species.

Chinese giant salamander or Andrias davidianus is known to vocalize, making barking, whining, hissing, or crying sounds. Some of these vocalizations bear a striking resemblance to the crying of a young human child, and as such, it is known in the Chinese language as the “infant fish”.

Chinese giant salamander or Andrias davidianus has been recorded feeding on insects, millipedes, horsehair worms, amphibians (both frogs and salamanders), freshwater crabs, shrimp, fish and Asiatic water shrews.

It is considered critically endangered in the wild due to habitat loss, pollution, and overcollection, as it is considered a delicacy and used in traditional Chinese medicine.

On farms in central China, it is extensively farmed and sometimes bred, although many of the salamanders on the farms are caught in the wild. Based on specimens in captivity, they can live for at least 60 years.

It has been listed as one of the top-10 “focal species” in 2008 by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered project.

There are many domestic and international efforts to conserve Chinese giant salamanders. Groups like EDGE, Shaanxi Normal University, the Zoological Society of London, and the Darwin Initiative are working on ways to spread public knowledge of Chinese giant salamander conservation.

These institutes are looking for ways to conserve the habitats and populations of Chinese giant salamanders.

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Additional information

Weight 3 lbs
Dimensions 3.8 in
Chinese Giant Salamander Facts

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Cryptobranchidae
Genus: Andrias
Species: A. davidianus
Binomial name: Andrias davidianus
Conservation status: Critically Endangered