Feathery gills! Adorable smiles! Cultural icons! Habitat ecology! And superhuman limb regeneration? It’s an entire episode on axolotls. You either love these aquatic salamanders, or you’ve never heard of them. Clap your tiny slimy hands for Ambystomologist Dr. Jessica Whited, who raises and studies these beautiful creatures. Also discussed: their narrow niche, the ecology movement to save them from wild endangerment, pet care ethics, color morphs, green glowing genetically modified ones and so much more. And of course: Minecraft.

Follow Jessica on Instagram

Order her children’s book: Axolotl (Young Zoologist): A First Field Guide to the Amphibian That Never Grows Up

Visit the Whited Lab and browse Dr. Whited’s papers on ResearchGate

A donation went to ADOPTAXOLTL via Instituto de Biologia de la UNAM

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Ambystomology episode + tons of science links

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Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jacob Chaffee

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm