A small cave salamander was recently recorded to have lived 100 years. In doing so, it has broken the world record for the oldest living amphibian. This type of salamander is able to live over twice as old as most of the other amphibians. Such as the Japanese giant salamander whose life span is only about 55 years. This particular amphibian, who has lived for 100 years, is nick-named ''the Human Fish''. Why? Because its entire snake-like body is covered in a layer of skin that looks like human skin.It is also blind and looks quite peculiar.
This article has to do with biology because it has to do with the study of living things. This study was able to record the life-span of this olm species of salamander. A professor claims that the cause for this salamander to live this long is probably '' very low activity, low reproduction, no environmental stress and its peculiar physiology''. All of these could be adaptations to its environment so that it could maximize its life-span and reproduce its 35 eggs every 12.5 years. Thereby, increasing its population and passing on its traits to its offspring.
We should care about this because maybe a further look into this salamander can tell humans how we can possibly live longer. This could lead to breakthroughs in medical science as well.
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