

Spotted salamander young come pre-equipped with photosynthetic algae - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/the-salamander-that-has-photosynthesis-happening-inside-it?utm_source=tss&utm_medium=desktop&utm_campaign=linkfrom

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pvaldes
Not a lot of energy, probably. The big question is... if salamander embrios
are photosintetic, why they tan?. Why they need to have so many melanin?

I think that if someone put salamanders in the dark with a non luminous source
of heat we will probably see a very different result. Dark is just colder.

The fact that salamanders could absorb a lot of chemicals just by the skin
does not implies necessarily that they could _avoid_ it if they want. If you
live submerged next to a radioactive source, how could you stop the
radioactivity generated outside entering your body?.

Maybe the article answer all those questions, but I'm a little sceptical about
this theory right now.

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iamcurious
I wonder how much energy the salamander gets if it stays the whole day under
the sun compared to one staying all day in the dark. Could this be quantified?

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kenrikm
How does the photosynthetic algae zooxanthellae that's found in many corals
differ from the algae in the salamander?

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pvaldes
A lot. Both are even from different Kingdoms

