Very vaguely SL related post today, but as undoubtedly the coolest amphibian in the world, I had to draw your attention to an axolotl post . I mentioned last week that Helen Meredith from ZSL will be coming to give a talk about the EDGE project for species which are not only endangered but also evolutionarily distinct, but I hadn’t realised that one of the 100 species featured in this project is the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum).

Axolotls are unusual animals and I’m sure they feature in every undergraduate zoology course as the most famous example of neoteny, but I can vouch that they also make very good pets: for anyone with time on their hands, hand feeding an axolotl raw liver is definitely more rewarding than watching a goldfish go round and round in a bowl.

I discovered the axolotl was on the list by reading Darren Naish’s blog Tetrapod Zoology, a blog covering dinosaur bones, cutting edge conservation and anything in between: highly recommended to anyone interested in four-legged things that you’ve never even thought of.