Newt vs Salamander: What Is the Difference Between Them?

Key differences at a glance

“Salamander” is the general name for all tailed amphibians, the order Caudata, with roughly 800 species in 10 families. “Newt” is the name for a smaller group of a little over 100 species within one of those families. So the real question is how newts differ from the other 700 or so salamanders.

In short, newts are semi-aquatic. Most have a three-stage life: a gilled larva in a pond, a land-dwelling juvenile called an eft, and an adult that comes back to the water every year to breed. Many other salamanders live entirely on land, entirely in water, or in streams and caves, and some never pass through an eft stage at all.

Are newts salamanders?

Yes. Scientists place newts in the subfamily Pleurodelinae, part of the family Salamandridae. The same family also contains the so-called true salamanders, such as the fire salamander of Europe, which is closely related to newts but is not a newt itself because it lives mostly on land and does not make a yearly return to ponds.

Other salamander families are only distantly related to newts. They include the lungless salamanders, the largest family with around 500 species, mostly in the Americas; the mole salamanders, such as the spotted salamander and the axolotl; and the giant salamanders, including North America’s hellbender.

Common names follow local habits. In Britain, the only native tailed amphibians are newts, so “salamander” is rarely used. In North America, where most salamander species live, “newt” refers to just seven species, and almost everything else is simply called a salamander.

Skin and tail

Texture is often the easiest clue. Most salamanders have smooth, moist, slippery skin. Newts have rougher, grainy or velvety skin, especially on land, which becomes smoother when they move into the water to breed. The great crested newt is so rough that it is also called the warty newt.

Most salamanders, including mole and lungless salamanders, have clear vertical grooves along their sides, called costal grooves. Newts and the other members of their family lack them.

The tail changes with the seasons in newts. During the breeding season, it becomes flattened from side to side with fins above and below, ideal for swimming, and males of many species grow crests along the back and tail. Land-dwelling salamanders, by contrast, generally keep a rounder tail all year.

Life cycle: the eft stage

Newt eggs are usually laid one by one and attached to water plants; European newts wrap each egg inside a folded leaf. The larvae have feathery external gills and grow front legs before back legs. After metamorphosis, the young newt becomes an eft and leaves the water.

The most famous eft is the red eft of the eastern newt, shown in the photo. It is bright orange with red, black-ringed spots and wanders the forest floor of eastern North America for two to three years, sometimes longer, before returning to a pond. There it turns olive green and becomes an aquatic adult.

Other salamanders follow many different paths. Mole salamanders lay clusters of eggs in pools. Many lungless salamanders lay eggs on land, and the young hatch as tiny copies of the adults, with no larval stage. The fire salamander gives birth to larvae in streams, and some populations produce fully formed young. The axolotl usually never metamorphoses at all, keeping its gills for life.

Water or land: where they live

Newts divide their lives between the two. European species such as the great crested and smooth newts spend most of the year on land and visit ponds for a few months in spring. North American eastern newts often stay in the water as adults. For the details, see where do newts live?

Other salamanders have a wider range of lifestyles. Fire salamanders and many lungless salamanders live on damp forest floors, coming near water only to give birth or lay eggs. Hellbenders, sirens and the cave-dwelling olm live in water all their lives. Some tropical lungless salamanders even live in trees.

Breathing differs as well. Adult newts have lungs and must swim up regularly to gulp air, though they also absorb some oxygen through their skin. Lungless salamanders, as their name says, have no lungs at all and take in oxygen only through their moist skin and the lining of the mouth, which is one reason they need cool, damp places.

Poison and defense

Many newts are toxic. Eastern newts and the Pacific newts of western North America carry tetrodotoxin, the same nerve poison found in pufferfish, and the rough-skinned newt has enough to be dangerous if eaten. Some garter snakes have evolved resistance and can eat them, as explained in how garter snakes eat toxic newts. Bright orange bellies or efts warn predators to stay away.

Other salamanders defend themselves too. Fire salamanders produce a different toxin, samandarin, from glands behind the head and along the back, and some salamanders can shed their tail to escape. Neither newts nor salamanders are dangerous if left alone, but wild amphibians should not be handled.

Size and lifespan

Newts are small to medium-sized. Most are about 6–20 cm (2.5–8 in) long, and the largest, the Iberian ribbed newt, can reach about 30 cm (12 in). Salamanders as a whole range from tiny lungless species of Mexico and Central America, only a few centimeters long, to the Chinese giant salamanders, which can exceed 1.5 m (5 ft).

Both groups can be long-lived. Wild great crested newts can reach about 17 years, and eastern newts 12–15 years. A captive fire salamander lived more than 50 years, and the olm is estimated to live for a century or more.

Can newts and salamanders interbreed?

Only very close relatives can hybridize. Great crested newts and marbled newts sometimes produce hybrids where their ranges meet in western France, and other crested newt species hybridize at range edges. A newt cannot breed with a fire salamander, axolotl or hellbender, because they are separated by millions of years of evolution and have different breeding systems.