The endosymbiosis between an alga and the spotted salamander shows several parallels to invertebrate-algal symbioses as well as to pathogen associations in vertebrate animals.

Transcriptomics is shedding new light on the relationship between photosynthetic algae and salamander eggs.

Both gill musculature and the evolutionarily conserved cucullaris muscle are derived from unsegmented mesoderm adjacent to the first 3 somites, extending the posterior limit of cranial mesoderm.

PRDM9 is widely conserved across vertebrates yet has been lost numerous times, as has its role in directing meiotic recombination.