Learn why the Red Backed Salamander dominates the Eastern Forest Ecosystem and vertebrate biomass pyramids of numbers and biomass! Plethodon cinereus is the most common salamander and has a surprising completely terrestrial life history. With amazing close-ups, how to identify and find this video explains everything you need to know about the Eastern Red-backed Salamanders. Plethodon species are all lungless salamanders and so must breath exclusively through their skin. Their illusive nature is explained by the need to avoid sunlight, live only in damp places and retreated underground when the surface becomes to hot or dry. They lay eggs on land, guarded by the female. They go through the gilled amphibian aquatic phase inside the egg, emerge with gills, only to lose them after the first day outside of the watery egg environment. A 2002 study/survey at the University of Virginia, Mountain Lake biological station revealed 3 salamanders on average per square meter, translating to a phenomenal 3,000,000 salamanders per square kilometer. The numbers and biomass of salamanders in eastern forests top out any other vertebrate. They are enormously important part of a balanced woodland ecosystem.

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