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Asked by to Ramya, Peter, Keith, Hannah, Bethany on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Keith Grehan answered on 20 Jun 2014:
Axolotl (i think we are talking about the same thing here 😉 ) is a type of salamander that never grows up!
They are capable of living their complete life (even laying eggs) in their juvenile (child) form, its worth noting that they can in fact grow up…some experiments have found that a axolotl can be made to mature into adult salamander if you inject them with iodine.
There are quite a few types of salamander that have this same ability to breed before they become adults. Evolutionary biologists think this may help them survive in environments with little food (they don’t need to eat as much in their juvenile form) and this would make sense if they only mature when they get lots of iodine because lots of iodine probably means they are eating a lot so there must be plenty of food.
As a child I really really wanted an axolotl for a pet, but they are quite tricky to keep as they are very sensitive. They are also becoming really rare in the wild which is a real shame.
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Bethany Dearlove answered on 22 Jun 2014:
I think Keith has all the main points covered in his answer. I’d just add that you might have heard of iodine, the chemical that makes axolotl mature into their salamander form, as iodine solution is used to test for starch in food tests (turning purple-black if starch is present).
You can find some pictures of axolotl at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Axolotl
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Peter Elliott answered on 23 Jun 2014:
Many scientists are fascinated by axolotl as it posses an amazing ability to regrow lost limbs without any signs of scarring. They study its genes, hoping to unlock the mystery about how this seemingly simple looking creature is able to do this.
Keith and Bethany are right, if you give axolotl iodine then it can turn into something that looks more like a salamander. Naturally this process would be done in the animals thyroid but research has shown that for some reason the hormones that the thyroid produces to induce the change from the child-like form to the developed form are at very low levels or are missing.
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