Wednesday April 13, 2011
This glob of gelatinous material contains more than a dozen eggs of the coast range newt Taricha torosa torosa. The coast range newt, a subspecies of the California newt, is a medium sized salamander found along the Pacific coast of California and is related to the Sierra newt we posted on 2 years ago. Each of these developing eggs can be seen moving around in individual egg chambers within the cluster in a short YouTube video. The embryos will grow into miniature versions of adults, with external gills, before emerging from their eggs. Unfortunately, females lay egg clusters in vegetation just below the surface of water, which makes them vulnerable to changing water levels, and explains why we found this cluster on the bank of a coastal stream that had recently experienced rapid flow changes.
Photo source: FISHBIO