This species may be small (3-5 inches), but it comes with a large list of interesting facts. First, it does not have lungs. That's right, a land-living vertebrate without lungs. It gets all of its oxygen by diffusion through the skin. Second, it does not use vernal pools for breeding. The female lays eggs in rotting logs, guards them, and the young are born as small, but fully-formed, adults. The larval, gilled stage typical of most salamanders that hatch in vernal pools occurs in the egg for this species. Third, this species is very abundant in the right habitat (mature hardwood forests of the upper mid-West and North-East). Indeed, some estimates have found red-backed salamander populations to be so high that their combined bio-mass is greater than all other vertebrates. That's right. For a given acre of forest, the salamanders weigh more than all the deer, raccoons, mice, birds etc... combined!