Anderson's Crocodile Newt

AmphibianJapan

Nov 2

Written By Alexander Julius Jensen

Echinotriton andersoni

The ribs of Anderson's crocodile newt are untethered to any muscular attachments at their ends and jut into the skin along its back, giving it an armoured appearance. When threatened, it adopts an anti-predator posture — using its sharp rib tips to pierce the rows of bumps on its sides.

The Ryukyu Arc

If any dragons dwell in Japan today, they'd be found hiding on the subtropical Ryukyu islands. This archipelago of coral and volcanic rock is strewn out in an arc from the southern mainland of Japan southwest to Taiwan, comprised of hundreds of islands ranging from small uninhabited outposts to the largest, Okinawa Island, stretching 112 kilometres (70 mi) long and 11 km (7 mi) wide. These are isles with underwater reefs and sandy beaches, extensive gnarled mangroves and ancient moss-carpeted cedar forests, and, on the higher mountain slopes, misty forests of pine and bamboo.

The Ryukyus are progenitors of novel lifeforms and bastions for relic species lost to the rest of the world. Here live spiny-furred rats and whiskered bats, black nocturnal rabbits and wild mountain cats with glowing eyes, rare red woodpeckers and screaming flightless birds that drop from trees. And, alongside this odd menagerie, there live dragons — albeit, little ones.

The Ryū from the Ryukyus

Echinotriton andersoni, commonly known as Anderson's crocodile newt, measures 16 cm (6.3 in) from the end of its flattened snout to the tip of its razor tail — maybe 21 cm (8.3 in), if it's a particularly large individual. Hardly dragon material. But scale it up a few magnitudes and this salamandrid would make for a suitably cold-blooded beast in any fantasy story.¹

Its skin is dark, almost black as charcoal, accented with marks of orange, like smouldering embers. Its head is wide and flat, splitting into a gummy grin when it opens its vast mouth. Its limbs splay out to the sides of its compressed torso, and it drags behind it a ridged, blade-like tail. Its body is covered in copious bumps and ridges, with the newt's ribs nearly jutting out from its skin to form a "shield" on its back. The tip of each rib bone is razor sharp, untethered to any muscular attachments, and prods into one of many wart-like glands that line each side of the newt's torso. In the face of a foe — perhaps a questing hero or, more realistically, a snake or mongoose — the newt curls up and flattens its body while raising its tail and arms. Then it uses its ribs to puncture its own skin in a horrifying display of self-laceration.²

Water Drake

Like many dragons of East Asian tradition — such as the Mizuchi, a Japanese river dragon — this newt has a deep connection with water. It is an amphibian, a salamander ³, and requires moisture to survive and reproduce. This little draconid dwells in patches of forest, leading a secretive life hidden amidst damp leaf litter and beneath toppled logs. The female newt times her egg-laying to coincide with the rain, sometime between early February and late June, when she'll lay one or several egg clutches into a hatchery of humus or beneath some rotting leaves, always close to a pond, puddle or spring.

With the arrival of a rushing rainfall, the gelatinous eggs writhe and split, spilling out slimy larvae. They are borne away from their hidden hatchery by flowing waters to face their first trial in life. They must crawl and leap through the mud, inching their way towards the nearest water, where they'll live until they metamorphose and mature into their black and armoured adult forms.

No More Dragons

Anderson's crocodile newt is found on the islands of Okinawa, Tokunoshima, Amami Ōshima, and a few of their small satellite islands. I say it "is found" but that's rarely true today. This is an exceedingly rare creature. On Tokunoshima, the newt has several dialectal names, depending on locality, suggesting that people were once quite familiar with the animal. Nowadays, most people who share its island home, give no notice to the newt, likely because there are few left, sequestered in the remaining fragments of viable habitat. And that's assuming the newt remains at all. There are historical records of it existing in Taiwan — it no longer does.

A newt needs moist forests or wetlands, leaf or log cover for hiding, a buffet of beetles, earthworms, and spiders, and a watery daycare for its larvae. Most of that has been taken — with forests turned into sugar cane plantations or cut down for wood — or fragmented by networks of asphalt roads and drainage ditches. Suitable habitats are becoming scarce; crevices for hiding eggs and water bodies to raise them are few and far between. Each generation of newts increasingly struggles to sire the next.

As we tear down and reshape these islands, making them more friendly and convenient to humans, there is less and less space for anything else. But we still want to admire those fascinating creatures (if not make the sacrifices necessary to live alongside them naturally), evidenced by the illegal pet trade of exotic animals. Not only have people stolen this newt's habitat, but we've stolen the newts themselves, to sell as pretty mantelpieces.

An island population is typically small and already at increased risk of extinction. Shrink it further and the chance of, say, a bad storm or disease wiping out most of the breeding individuals becomes very high. If that happens, the population is no longer viable — it withers to its last lonely member, and then it's gone. That's what likely befell the newts of Taiwan. The remaining population is difficult to survey, given the newt's secretive nature. But the remaining fragments of newts — fragmented between islands, and, on those islands, fragmented into pockets of forests amid islands of human habitat — are likely diminishing and the species is considered 'vulnerable' by the IUCN. Nationally, it is considered endangered.

There has been some success, although few attempts, to breed this species in captivity. On Okinawa, the newt is considered a living natural monument. It is often called a "living fossil" for its "primitive" anatomy — relatively unchanged from its ancient salamander ancestors. So, what would be the consequences if this species, rarely even seen by its island neighbours, was lost? Apart from implications for the wider ecosystem, to lose these relic dragons, with their armoured backs and self-stabbing ribs, would be to irretrievably lose a piece of our planet's natural history; a chapter burned from the Book of Life. It would mean a more homogenous world, with less in it. A world made a little less magical with the loss of dragons.

A Japanese giant salamander (*Andrias japonicus*).

¹ On Japan's mainland, there already lives a behemoth amphibian. It is known as the Japanese giant salamander and it grows to lengths of 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) and weights of up to 25 kg (55 lbs) — just losing out to the Chinese giant salamander for the title of the world's largest amphibian. It is an astounding animal (if not the most comely); able to breathe through its skin, secrete toxic mucus that smells like peppers, and regenerate limbs and organs.

This creature even inspires a yōkai myth — although, rather than a dragon, it is more of a terrifying water monster. The hanzaki is a giant salamander that has grown so large, that fish no longer satisfy its appetite. So it wanders into nearby villages, taking cattle and humans in its cavernous mouth, and drags them down to the depths of its watery domain to consume them. Its cry is said to sound like the wail of a child.

An Iberian ribbed newt (*Pleurodeles waltl*) on top and an emperor newt (*Tylototriton shanjing*) below.

² Self-impalement (expalement? — since it happens from inside-out) is a more common survival strategy than you might expect, at least among salamanders.

The Iberian ribbed newt is named for this extreme defensive measure. The newt's poisonous skin is usually enough to deter most threats, but as a last resort, the newt will use its own ribs to pierce through wart-like bumps along the sides of its back; turning the smooth amphibian into a hazard with poison-coated spines.

The emperor newt from the mountains of western China does the same. Its dark body is textured with orange ridges along the head and back, flanked by two rows of orange warts that run along its sides. The rows of orange “warts” are actually poisonous glands. When this newt is grabbed and squeezed by a predator, the tips of its ribs push poison out from these glands— with a single newt holding enough toxin to kill up to 7,500 mice.

Clockwise from top left; a rough-skinned newt (*Taricha granulosa*), smooth newt (*Lissotriton vulgaris*), pygmy marbled newt (*Triturus pygmaeus*), and a sword-tailed newt (*Cynops ensicauda*).

³ A newt is always a salamander, but a salamander is not always a newt. In other words, "salamanders" are a group of amphibians and, within that group, there is a subgroup known as "newts" — they're generally part of the subfamily Pleurodelinae. "Newt" typically encompasses those salamanders that have rougher skin and spend much of the year living on land.

Some examples of newts include the rough-skinned newt (from North America), the smooth newt (from much of Europe), the pygmy marbled newt (from Portugal and Spain), the emperor newt (from western China), and the sword-tailed newt (endemic to Japan's Ryukyu Archipelago).

**Where Does It Live?**

⛰️ Moist forests or wetlands, near bodies of water.
📍 Ryukyu Arc; the islands of Okinawa, Tokunoshima, Amami Ōshima, and a few of their small nearby islands.

Size // Small
Length // 16 cm (6.3 in) on average, up to 21 cm (8.3 in)
Weight // 12 to 45 g (0.4 - 1.6 oz)
Activity: Nocturnal 🌙
Lifestyle: Solitary 👤
Lifespan: N/A
Diet: Carnivore
Favorite Food: Bugs, beetles, worms, and snails 🐌
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Salamandridae
Genus: Echinotriton
Species: E. andersoni

Anderson's crocodile newt is endemic to the Japanese Ryukyu Archipelago — found on the islands of Okinawa, Tokunoshima, Amami Ōshima, and a few of their small surrounding islands.

A few museum specimens suggest it also once lived on Taiwan. But, if it ever did, that population is no more.

Where it still lives, it is an exceedingly rare creature. Several local names suggest that people were once quite familiar with this newt. However, nowadays, people sharing its island home very rarely encounter it.

This newt survives in remaining fragments of viable habitat; patches of forest, with damp leaf litter and toppled logs to hide beneath.

It feeds on invertebrates like beetles, worms, and snails.

A female lays her eggs sometime between early February and late June, coinciding with coming rains. She hides her clutch within a hatchery of humus or beneath some rotting leaves, always close to a pond, puddle or spring.

When the eggs hatch also depends on rain. A strong downpour will cause the gelatinous eggs to writhe and rupture, the slimy larvae inside pouring out onto the forest floor. These tadpole-like hatchlings must then wriggle across the leaf litter and mud to the nearest body of water — where they will remain until they metamorphose into adults.

On average, this newt grows to 16 centimetres (6.3 in) long, from the end of its flattened snout to the tip of its tail — up to 21 cm (8.3 in), if it's a particularly large individual.

This newt's body is mostly black, with some marks of orange, and is covered in copious bumps and ridges.

Its ribs nearly jut out from its skin to form a "shield" on its back. The tip of each rib bone is razor sharp, untethered to any muscular attachments, and prods into one of many wart-like glands that line each side of the newt's torso.

In the face of a threat — such as a snake or mongoose — the newt curls up and flattens its body while raising its tail and arms, and, as a last resort, pierces its own skin with the tips of its ribs.

Other salamander species use the same self-skewering defence strategy; most notably the Iberian ribbed newt and the emperor newt.

The largest threat to this species is habitat destruction and fragmentation — with forests turned into sugar cane plantations and fragmented by roads and drainage ditches.

It is classified as 'vulnerable' by the IUCN. Nationally, it is considered endangered.

Although attempts have been few, there has been some success with breeding in captivity.

On Okinawa, the newt is considered a living natural monument and it's often called a "living fossil" for its "primitive" anatomy — relatively unchanged from its ancient salamander ancestors.