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Axolotl

Ambystoma mexicanum

Status: Critically endangered because of pollution due to urbanization in areas around their lake habitats.

To the Aztecs, axolotl was a creature linked with death, and transformation. It was the animal form of the Aztec god Xolotl. Xolotl had a twin brother named Quetzalcoatl. The brothers embarked on a journey to the underworld in order to retrieve some bone relics from the goddess Mictlantecuhtli, whom they had to trick in order to win the bones. They fled back above to the living world of light with their prize. With the help of the gods, from these ancient bones, humans were born.

In another story, Xolotl fled from death. He disguised himself repeatedly, first as a corn plant, then a maguey plant, and was uncovered each time. Finally he took on the form of a salamander (an axolotl as it came to be called, stemming from Xolotl's name), and fled into the water, but death found him regardless.

 

References:
Offal: Rejected and Reclaimed Food : Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2016. (2017). United Kingdom: Prospect Books, pp 379-382.

Beyer, H. (1908). The Symbolic Meaning of the Dog in Ancient Mexico. American Anthropologist, 10(3), 419-422. http://www.jstor.org/stable/659861

"Axolotl". National Geogaphic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/facts/axolotl