Newts are cute! Newts are cool! Newts are a little slimy! Lovely boys!
Newts are small amphibians, a kind of salamander. They are found in North America, Europe, and North Asia.
The term "newt" has traditionally been used as a functional term for salamanders living in water, and not a systematic unit. The relationship between the genera has been uncertain, though they may be a natural systematic unit. Newer molecular analysis tend to suggest they actually do form a clade. Newts only appear in one subfamily of salamanders, the Pleurodelinae (of the family Salamandridae). Some genera occasionally listed as Pleurodelinae are not newts (Salamandrina and Euproctus).
^^^a red-spotted newt^^^
Their mother lays eggs and leaves them. Tadpoles are born from those eggs.
Newts have three life stages. First as a tiny aquatic larva, which gradually undergoes metamorphosis. Then they leave the water for a year as a juvenile called an eft. They go back in the water to breed as adults.
In some species the adults stay in water for the rest of their lives. Others are land-based, but return to water each year to breed.
VVV Marbled newt (Triturus marmoratus)VVV
