Alpine Newt

Fascinating facts about the Alpine Newt

• Most European newts fully transform, but alpine newts keep their gills far more often. Paedomorphy, where adults do not metamorphose and instead retain their gills and stay aquatic, is more common in the alpine newt than in other European newts. It is almost exclusively found in the southern part of the range (but not in the Cantabrian subspecies, I. a. cyreni). This facultative strategy still interbreed with metamorphic peers.
• A single male can flood the pond with dozens of sperm packets each season. In a breeding season, a male can produce more than 48 spermatophores, and offspring from one female usually have several fathers. Females wrap their eggs in leaves of water plants, laying 70-390 eggs in a season, each 1.5-1.7 mm in diameter (2.5-3 mm with jelly).
• Populations of the alpine newt started to diverge around 20 million years ago. Alpine newt populations have separated since the Early Miocene, around 20 million years ago, according to a molecular clock estimate by Recuero and colleagues. Such deep splits suggest hidden cryptic species.
• At higher altitudes, maturity is reached only after 9-11 years, and the newts can live for up to 30 years. Lowland alpine newts can reach the age of ten.
• From sea level to alpine heights, the newt spans a vertical world. The alpine newt can occur at high elevation and has been found up to 2,370 m (7,780 ft) above sea level in the Alps. It also occurs in the lowlands down to sea level.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

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