25 Q 7

Describe the breeding behavior of a typical woodland salamander.

The eggs are fertilized internally. A female recovers in her cloaca a packet of sperm deposited by a male on a leaf or stick. The female stores the sperm in her body and uses it to fertilize her eggs before laying them. Assuming a typical woodland salamandar is a terrestrial salamandar, the female deposits her eggs in small grapelike clusters under logs or in excavations in soft moist earth, and in many species the adults guard their eggs. The baby salamandars have direct development, meaning they bypass the larval stage and emerge from their eggs as miniature versions of the adults.

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