Real Life Monsters: Giant Salamanders
Friday, March 21st, 2008
Depending on your location, seeing a salamander is not particularly out of the ordinary. If you are exploring the brooks and ponds of China or Japan you may come across a Salamander so large that you may mistake it for some sort of river monster. The Chinese (Andrias davidianus) and Japanese (Andrias japonicus) giant Salamanders can grow up to 6 feet in length or larger dwarfing the next largest Salamander species, the American Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), which only reaches lengths of just over 2 feet.
The Japanese variety is the smaller of the two growing to only 4 feet 9 inches. It is entirely aquatic, living is the clear cool streams of Japan. Hunting at night and having very poor eyesight, the Japanese Giant Salamander depends on special sensory nodes in its forehead to detect its prey’s movement through the water. Because it lacks any natural competition in its environment and has an extremely slow metabolism the Japanese Giant Salamander lives a very long life. One specimen in captivity in a Dutch zoo lived for 52 years.
This solitary creature is rarely ever seen alive, but when it is, it can easily be mistaken for a real life sea serpent. There are 4 described species of this incredible looking creature (though some biologist believe there may only be one actual species of oarfish), which can grow up to 36 feet in length (11 meters). The largest bony fish still alive, the oarfish is believed to inhabit most of the worlds oceans. Rare sightings by divers and accidental entanglement in fishing nets gives researchers what little they know about this monstrous looking fish. Apparently solitary, the oarfish most likely lives at depths between 65 and 3,280 feet (20-1,000 meters) coming to the surface only to spawn or when they are sick or injured. Appearing thin and ribbon-like, the oarfish is silver in color with blue to black stripes, spots or squiggles along the length of its body and pink to red spiny looking fins most conspicuously located on the creatures back. While little is known about this mysterious creature (it was not even filmed alive in its natural environment until 2001), it is easy to imagine this fantastic looking fish being identified as a sea serpent, especially if you run in to one of the larger species which have been reported to stretch over 50 feet in length.
