Have you ever seen a creature that seems to smile at you from behind the glass, with feathery gills waving like carnival ...

The axolotl — especially the white and pink variety, shown here — has taken popular culture by storm thanks to its cute smile and feathery gills. Credit: Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University.

Most axolotls are dark brown with some black speckling, but it’s common for them to have a white mutation or be albino as well. They have a long tail with short legs and feet, and a cute little ...

You might know axolotls from video games like “Minecraft” and “Pokemon,” but the aquatic salamanders with unique, adorable and popular with people who keep amphians as pets.

A worker shows an axolotl in a hatchery to preserve the species on August 19, 2019 in Mexico City, Mexico. CREDIT: Eyepix/NurPhoto via Getty Images. NurPhoto ...

For that reason, captive-bred axolotls—which are a light pink in color—are common research subjects for biologists, who have long been fascinated by their ability to defy aging. (Learn how you ...

These glow-in-the-dark axolotls can regrow lost limbs — and scientists say studying them could eventually help humans do the same.

But wild axolotls, endemic to a single lake in Mexico, are critically endangered due to degradation of their native wetlands, with only 50 to 1,000 individuals left in the wild.

That’s because, in kid world, the axolotl is a celebrity. It’s tough to pinpoint the animals’ pop culture nexus. They’ve been popular on social media since at least the mid-2010s, and ...