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My understanding is they were in other mountainous areas as well in central Mexico but their habitat was much more reduced there so they went extinct even faste
by prmoustache 6mo ago
My understanding is they were in other mountainous areas as well in central Mexico but their habitat was much more reduced there so they went extinct even faster.
one example: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382147531_Chronicle_of_an_extinction_foretold_the_case_of_the_axolotl_Ambystoma_velasci_in_Sierra_Gorda_de_Guanajuato https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382147531_Chronicle...
- culi 6mo agoThis paper is about the closely related Ambystoma velasci. The axolotl is Ambystoma mexicanum. They are closely related enough that there's some evidence of hybridization but they are separate species. A. velasci is not endangered.
- prmoustache 6mo agoA. Velasci is definitely endangered in its natural habitats and it was also called Axolotl in nahuatl. I don't think it is interesting to argue if there is one axolotl that is more important than the others, even if the one from Xochimilco has the particularity of staying in its larval state.
- culi 6mo agoAmbystoma velasci is actually classified as "Least Concern" by the IUCN https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/62130287/53974804 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/62130287/53974804 I'm not arguing one is more important than the other but only one of them is critically endangered and only one of them is a powerful cultural indigenous symbol. Ambystoma velasci is also an "actual" salamander. The unique thing about the axolotl is that it never goes to the stage where it leaves the water. It is the only salamander species known to do this.