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Axolotl

Ambystoma mexicanum · hard

The axolotl never grows up, and that is the whole point of it. Most salamanders hatch as aquatic larvae with feathery external gills, then metamorphose into air-breathing adults that leave the water. The axolotl skips the second half. It reaches sexual maturity while keeping its gills, its finned tail and its entirely aquatic life — a condition called neoteny.

It is also the most capable regenerator among vertebrates. An axolotl can regrow a lost limb complete with bone, muscle and nerve, and will repair damage to its heart, spinal cord and parts of its brain without scarring. That ability has made it one of the most studied animals in laboratories anywhere, and it is now far more numerous in tanks than in the wild.

The wild population is the paradox. Axolotls are native only to the lake system beneath Mexico City, and almost all of that system has been drained. What remains is a network of canals and chinampas at Xochimilco, where introduced tilapia and carp eat the young and water quality is poor. Surveys there have found vanishingly few animals, making a species familiar to schoolchildren worldwide one of the most endangered amphibians in existence.

Where it lives

Worml lists the axolotl as native to Mexico. Its habitat is freshwater canals and lake remnants of a single valley.

Ranges here are reduced to whole countries for playability and exclude introduced populations — see about the data for what that simplification leaves out.

In the game

Axolotl is rated hard. To solve the round you need to name the single country it lives in. How scoring works →

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