There ’s something in the pee in Florida , but it ’s not the swamp fiend locals may have feared . According toNational Geographic , scientist have discovered a new species of giant salamander called a reticulate siren , and you could discover the 2 - foot - longsighted amphibian in the swamps of southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle .
Locals have long reported seeing a creature with leopard - similar spots , the body of an whopping eel , andaxolotl - like folderal sprouting out of the sides of its head word , but its world was n’t described in scientific literature until now . research worker from Texas and Georgia late published their findings in the journalPLOS ONE .
“ It was fundamentally this mythical beast , ” David Steen , a wildlife ecologist and one of the paper ’s co - generator , tellsNational Geographic . He had been trapping turtles at the Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County , Florida , in 2009 when he caught one of the creatures by chance . After that face-off , the researchers set out to bump more specimen .
conversationally , locals have long beencallingthe creature a Panthera pardus eel . Because the reticulate siren only has two lilliputian front limb , it ’s easy to mistake it for an eel . Its hind branch disappeared throughout the course of millions of years of phylogenesis , and it also miss eyelids and has a beak or else of the teeth that are typical of other salamander mintage .
They go to a genus of poker called enchantress , which are one of the largest types of salamander in the world . The 2d part of the species ’ name comes from the reticulated traffic pattern seen on all of the individuals that were study by researchers . The reticulate enchantress is also one of the largest vertebrates to be officially described by scientists in the U.S. in the last 100 years , accord to the theme .
There are still a mountain of unknowns about the reticulated Delilah . They lead out of sight lives below the surface of the water system , and they ’re thought to exist on insects and mollusks . Researchers say further study is urgently needed because there ’s a fortune the species could be scupper .
[ h / tNational Geographic ]
