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Salamanders and Newts: Hellbender vb
The Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) is the featured Reptile or Amphibian of this Issue. It is indubitably cool by virtue of it's name alone, but also because it maintains it's gills into adulthood. This critter hangs out in the Mississippi basin, and the Ozarks, like them thar hillbillies, after whom their distinctive musical stylings are named, in Billboard Magazine, before more enlightened times. A cousin of this critter eventually managed to invade the world in Karel Capek's novella, 'Invasion of the Newts'. Not to be confused with the decadent Roman Emporer Helioglabus. Salamanders of this sort are reputed to live in fire. Although they are harmless, do not trust them.