AMPHIBIA: CAUDATA: CRYPTOBRANCHIDAE: Cryptobranchus

Cryptobranchus alleganiensis Author and date

Hellbender

Photos by Dr. Robert Sprackland

Range: Rivers of the eastern United States and Canada, east of the center of North America.

Diagnosis: North America's largest native salamander. Hellbenders are fully aquatic. with extremely tiny eyes, loose skin, and lack external gills.

Description: Body flat, with loose skin that forms a flap along each side of the body. Neck short, broad, without gill slits or external gill filaments. Head broad, blunt, depressed, with tiny inconspicuous lidless lids. Tail shorter than snout-vent length, strongly compressed with dorsal and ventral fin. Limbs short, stout, and well developed, with stout digits.

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