That depends on what you find most interesting.



The most morphologically odd salamanders are probably the pigmentless, spindle-legged, shovel-nosed obligate cave-dwellers like the olm (Proteus anguinus) of Europe and some of the brook salamander (Eurycea) species of the southern U.S.; Eurycea (Typhlomolge) rathbuni and Eurycea (Haideotriton) wallacei are particularly specialized. The eel-like, tiny-legged, swamp-dwelling amphiumas and sirens of southeastern North America and the giant, flattened, wrinkly-skinned hellbenders of east Asia and the eastern US are also quite odd. All of the above-mentioned salamanders are paedomorphs, which retain larval characterisitics throughout their lives and never fully metamorphose.



If you're more interested in physiology, the Alpine salamander (Salamandra atra) is quite odd; the female mates, is pregnant for two years, then bears two live young.



Genetically speaking, the mole salamander hybrid complex (Ambystoma species) of northeastern North America is very strange. Salamanders with 3, 4, or even 5 full sets of chromosomes (instead of the usual 2 sets) from four different parental species exist across a broad area; they are all female, and many of them must mate with males of another species to lay eggs, but usually do not use his genetic material; instead, the young are clones of their mother. Even stranger, the mitochondrial DNA of these hybrids apparently does not come from any of the parental species, but instead from an unknown species whose nuclear genome has vanished.



There are other unusual salamanders, but this should be enough to get you started!

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