American burying beetle
This colorful beetle grows to about an inch and a half long and was once found throughout the eastern half of North America.  It helps to keep our environment clean by burying dead animals, which it uses as food for its young.

Black Warrior waterdog
This aquatic salamander gets its name from the northern Alabama river where it lives.  It depends on clean, free-flowing streams.  Do you think it barks? 

Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard
The fringes on the toes of this reptile help it swim through loose sand to escape predators and the intense desert heat.  Special scales keep the sand out of its ears and nose.

Fine-lined pocketbook
Some people think this  southeastern animal looks like a woman’s handbag.  It lives on the bottom of rivers, where it filters tiny food particles from the water.   

Green pitcher plant
Ever eat a bug?  This plant has a tube or pitcher-shaped leaf that contains a liquid that attracts insects.  Once the insects are inside, they become trapped.  The plant then slowly digests them. 

Lesser long-nosed bat
Besides a long nose, this flying mammal has a long tongue that it uses to sip nectar from the flowers of the saguaro cactus in the American Southwest.  At the same time, it pollinates the flowers. 

Longhorn fairy shrimp
When winter rains fill seasonal wetlands in California, these tiny animals hatch from eggs laid the last time the pools were full.  They grow quickly to adulthood and lay eggs for the next rainy season before the wetlands dry out in the summer. 

Orangefoot pimpleback
One way to identify this animal is by its pimply shell.  It filters its food from river water and is harmed by water pollution.
What kind of habitat do you think it needs?  

Ozark hellbender
Did you know that this harmless aquatic creature, one of the world’s largest salamanders, can grow up to about two feet long?  It gets its name from the region where it lives and from its strange appearance.

Parachute penstemon
No, this wildflower doesn’t jump out of airplanes.  Its name comes from Parachute, Colorado, close to where it grows.  Some people call it the
Parachute beardtongue.

Razorback sucker
The sharp-edged hump on the back of this large fish helps steer it through the strong currents of the Colorado River.  Dams have turned most of its habitat into a series of lakes, where it does not do as well.  How do you think it eats its food? 

Running buffalo clover
Many years ago, buffalo or bison grazed on these small plants and helped to spread their seeds across a wide area of the Eastern United States.  The plants also spread by growing “runners” along the ground. 

Spectacled eider
The feathered “patches” around the eyes of this large sea duck look to some people like eyeglasses or spectacles.  It lives only in cold arctic habitats.

Unarmored three-spine stickleback
The spines on the back of this small fish and its lack of scales give this species its unusual name.  It’s found only in freshwater streams of southern California.