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GLOSSARY
Giant salamander (osanshouo)
One of the world's largest amphibians, the giant salamander of Japan is 1.4m in total length, with a Iong body, laterally flattened tail and short limbs.The forelimbs have four digits and the rear limbs have five. The head is flat with very small eyes and no eyelids; the nostrils are at the top of the proboscis and there is no branchial cleft. The body, which is dark brown in colour with black spots, is traversed from side to side by skin fimbria. Many mucous glands cover the skin and these produce a slimy secretion which is considered to smell like sansho (Xanthoxylum piperitum),a Japanese variety of pepper. Osanshouo live in the mountain rivers of the Kinki, Chugoku and North Kyushu regions. They hide under rocks or river banks in the daytime and swim in the river at night, preying on river crabs, fish and frogs. Long, bead-shaped eggs are laid on land, some 400-500 at a time, in August or September. The giant salamander is protected as a special natural monument and "living fossil". It is a survivor from the Upper Jurassic period, some 140 million years ago.