noun
definition
A critically endangered salamander found in the elevated lakes of Mexico, Ambystoma mexicanum.
Examples of axolotls in a Sentence
It is generally admitted that the axolotls which were kept alive in Europe and were particularly abundant between 1870 and 1880 are all the descendants of a stock bred in Paris and distributed chiefly by dealers, originally, we believe, by the late P. Carbonnier.
So numerous were the axolotls that the Paris Museum was able to distribute to other institutions, as well as to dealers and private individuals, over a thousand examples, which found their way to all parts of Europe, and numberless specimens have been kept in England from 1866 to the present day.
The native fishermen know all about them; how the eggs are fastened to the water plants, how soon after the little larvae swarm about in thousands, how fast they grow, until by the month of June they are all grown into big, fat creatures ready for the market; later in the summer the axolotls are said to take to the rushes, in the autumn they become scarce, but none have ever been known to leave the water or to metamorphose, nor are any perfect Amblystomas found in the vicinity of the two lakes."
The original axolotls, from the vicinity of Mexico City, it is believed, arrived at the Jardin d'Acclimatation, Paris, late in 1863.
Soon after their arrival at the Jardin d'Acclimatation, some of the axolotls spawned, but the eggs, not having been removed from the aquarium, were devoured by its occupants.
Thus we see that in our aquariums most of the axolotls remain in the branchiate condition, transformed individuals being on the whole very exceptional.
Duges's statement that there is a second species of Amblystoma, which is normal in its metamorphosis, near Mexico but at a higher altitude, which may explain Velasco's observation that regularly transforming Amblystomas occur near that city; and thirdly, he made a careful examination of the two lakes, Chalco and Xochimilco, where the axolotls occur in abundance and are procured for the market.
In Gadow's opinion, the reason why there are only perennibranchiate axolotls in these lakes is obvious.