Hellbender

The hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), also known as the hellbender salamander, is a species of giant salamander that is endemic to eastern North America. A member of the Cryptobranchidae family, hellbenders are the only members of the Cryptobranchus genus, and are joined only by one other genus of salamanders (Andrias, which contains the Japanese and Chinese giant salamanders) at the family level. Hellbenders are ecologically significant for many reasons, including their uniqueness. These salamanders are much larger than any others in their endemic range, they employ an “unusual” means of respiration (which involves cutaneous gas exchange through capillaries found in their dorsoventral folds), and they fill a particular niche—both as a predator and prey—in their ecosystem which either they or their ancestors have occupied for around 65 million years.