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Photo of the Day

August 25, 2001

Salamander Larvae, Maryland Piedmont, 1999

Photograph by George Grall

"Bursting their balloons, larvae of the spotted salamander hatch into a green broth of algae, entering the vernal pool equipped with budlike forelimbs and external gills. Voracious eaters, the larvae will consume anything they can swallow, including their hatching brothers and sisters. To dodge predators, they use the algae as cover."

—From "The Pools of Spring," April 1999, National Geographic magazine