He added: 'Wandering salamanders were especially adept and seemed to instinctively deploy skydiving postures upon first contact with the airstream. 'These salamanders were not only able to slow ...

When the researchers dropped wandering salamanders, Aneides vagrans, into wind tunnels, the amphibians assumed a position similar to that of human skydivers and used their tails and feet to slow ...

For their study, Brown and his team used a miniature wind tunnel box to simulate the salamanders’ freefall, sort of like an indoor amphibian skydiving gym. In all 45 trials, the wandering ...

Similarly, the researchers suspect that this salamander's skydiving skills are a way to steer back to a tree it's fallen or jumped from, the better to avoid terrestrial predators. "While they're ...

Brown places a salamander in a vertical wind tunnel to observe its skydiving technique. (Submitted by Christian Brown) "They never flipped upside down, and they had control over an upright posture ...

One thing we do know about this salamander is that when disturbed it will willingly jump from tree branches, assuming a posture similar to that taken by skydivers, as can be seen below.

Salamanders that live in the world’s tallest trees use an outstretched skydiving posture to slow their descent when they jump or fall to the ground. These wandering salamanders (Aneides vagrans ...

Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.

To test their skydiving abilities, Brown put the five-inch-long salamanders into tiny wind tunnels – the same type you might see at an indoor skydiving park, just in a salamander’s size.

Ground-dwellers, on the other hand, freak out during free-fall. The salamander's skydiving skills are likely a way to steer back to a tree it has fallen or jumped from to avoid terrestrial predators.