Ambystoma gracile

The Ambystoma gracile is a 14-22 cm North-American salamander that may metamorphosize and leave the pond to live on the solid ground breathing deeply or spend all its life in the water, with the gills, like a tadpole, but always able to reproduce. This phenomenon, called neoteny, is frequent also in the more known Ambystoma mexicanum present as a curiosity in many aquaria, with young albinos, called Axolotl, having showy red gills © Giuseppe Mazza