What Is the Largest Amphibian? Giant Salamanders of China

The world’s largest amphibians at a glance

The table compares the biggest members of each amphibian group. Frogs are measured from snout to vent without the legs, while salamanders and caecilians are measured in total length.

These are record figures. Typical adults of every species are smaller, and the giant salamanders in particular rarely reach their old maximum sizes today.

Chinese and South China giant salamanders

The Chinese giant salamander has long been called the largest amphibian. It is a flat, wrinkled, fully aquatic salamander of cool mountain streams in central China. Most adults seen in recent decades are around 1 m (3.3 ft) long, but historical animals grew much bigger.

The largest well-known specimen was a 1.8 m (5.9 ft) giant salamander collected near Guiyang in Guizhou Province in the early 1920s. In 2019, a genetic study of museum specimens showed that the giant salamanders of China belong to several separate species and revived the South China giant salamander (Andrias sligoi) as one of them. Because recent giant salamanders from the Guizhou region group genetically with A. sligoi, that record animal may have been a South China giant salamander, which would make A. sligoi the largest amphibian of all.

The two species are so similar in size that the honest answer is a shared title. What is certain is that giant salamanders from China hold the record, and that weights of 40–50 kg (88–110 lb) have been reported for big individuals. In 2015, a 1.4 m (4.6 ft) giant salamander weighing about 52 kg (115 lb) was found in a cave in Chongqing, showing that very heavy animals still turn up.

The Japanese giant salamander

The Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus) of western Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu is the third-largest amphibian. It can reach about 1.5 m (5 ft) and 25 kg (55 lb), and the largest wild animal on record measured 1.36 m (4.5 ft) and weighed about 26 kg (58 lb). It looks very similar to its Chinese cousins and can hybridize with Chinese giant salamanders introduced to Japan.

North America’s giant: the hellbender

The hellbender of the eastern United States is the only member of the giant salamander family outside Asia. Adults usually measure 30–60 cm (12–24 in), with a maximum of about 74 cm (29 in), and weigh up to about 2.5 kg (5.5 lb). That makes it the largest salamander in North America, but less than half the length of a big Chinese giant salamander. All giant salamanders share the same flattened shape, folded skin and habit of breathing mostly through the skin.

What are the largest frogs and caecilians?

The largest frog is the goliath frog (Conraua goliath) of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Big adults measure about 30–34 cm (12–13 in) from snout to vent, and the heaviest verified specimen weighed about 3.3 kg (7.3 lb). With its legs stretched out, a large goliath frog can exceed 80 cm (31 in). By comparison, the American bullfrog tops out at about 20 cm (8 in) and 800 g (1.8 lb).

Among toads, the cane toad is one of the largest, usually 10–15 cm (4–6 in) long but with exceptional individuals around 24 cm (9.4 in) and more than 2.5 kg (5.5 lb).

Caecilians are legless, worm-like amphibians of the tropics. The largest, Thompson’s caecilian (Caecilia thompsoni) of Colombia, reaches about 1.5 m (5 ft). It rivals the giant salamanders in length but is slender and weighs only about 1 kg (2.2 lb).

Why do giant salamanders grow so large?

Several features let giant salamanders reach their size. They live in cool, oxygen-rich water, which supports their large bodies and their skin breathing. Water also carries their weight, so they do not need the strong skeleton that a land animal of the same mass would. They grow slowly but keep growing throughout their long lives, and they have few natural predators once they are adult.

Their size may also be an old feature of the family. Giant salamanders belong to the Cryptobranchidae, a lineage with fossils going back to the Jurassic. A fossil giant salamander from Switzerland, now named Andrias scheuchzeri, was famously described in 1726 as the skeleton of a human who drowned in the biblical flood, before naturalists recognized it as a salamander.

Are the largest amphibians endangered?

Sadly, most of the record holders are in trouble. The Chinese and South China giant salamanders are both classed as Critically Endangered, mainly because of overharvesting for food, habitat loss and the mixing of lineages on farms. The Japanese giant salamander is Vulnerable, the hellbender is Vulnerable and the goliath frog is Endangered. The giants of the amphibian world are among the species most at risk.