... performance, in terms of tongue-projection distance, velocity, acceleration and power, compared with terrestrial salamandrids when feeding in a terrestrial environment. We found that semi-aquatic and aquatic newts had lower velocity, acceleration and muscle-mass-specific power of tongue projection when...

...Ryan P. Ferrer; Richard K. Zimmer SUMMARY Animal perception of chemosensory cues is a function of ecological context. Larvae of the California newt ( Taricha torosa ), for example, exhibit predator-avoidance behavior in response to a chemical from cannibalistic adults. The poison tetrodotoxin (TTX...

...Ryan P. Ferrer; Richard K. Zimmer SUMMARY Chemoreception may function throughout an entire animal lifetime, with independent, stage-specific selection pressures leading to changes in physiological properties, behavioral expression, and hence, trophic interactions. When the California newt ( Taricha...

...Miriam A. Ashley-Ross; Brett F. Bechtel SUMMARY California newts (Taricha torosa) are capable of locomotion in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. The transition between swimming and terrestrial walking was examined by videotaping individual Taricha walking both up and down a ramp, inclined...

...John B. Phillips; S. Chris Borland; Michael J. Freake; Jacques Brassart; Joseph L. Kirschvink SUMMARY Experiments were carried out to investigate the earlier prediction that prolonged exposure to long-wavelength (>500 nm) light would eliminate homing orientation by male Eastern red-spotted newts...

... in flies, amphibians and birds has been found to be influenced by light, and in all these groups a shift of approximately 90° in the direction of magnetic compass orientation has been observed under certain wavelengths and/or intensities of light. In the eastern red-spotted newt Notophthalmus viridescens...

... experiments, newts tested under full-spectrum and short-wavelength (i.e. 400 and 450 nm) light exhibited shoreward magnetic compass orientation. Under long-wavelength (i.e. 550 and 600 nm) light, newts exhibited magnetic compass orientation that was rotated 90 ° counterclockwise to the shoreward direction...