内容摘要：The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

“He was hunted down and killed,” said Arturo Montero, archeologist of the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas. “And from his death came a creature: axolotl.”Manuel Rodriguez sits atop a canoe shaped like an axolotl during its symbolic release in the canals of Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

Manuel Rodriguez sits atop a canoe shaped like an axolotl during its symbolic release in the canals of Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)According to Montero, the myth implies that, after a god’s passing, its essence gets imprisoned in a mundane creature, subject to the cycles of life and death. Axolotl then carries within itself the Xolotl deity, and when the animal dies and its divine substance transits to the underworld, it later resurfaces to the earth and a new axolotl is born.“Axolotl is the twin of maize, agave and water,” Montero said.

Current fascination toward axolotl and its rise to sacred status in pre-Hispanic times is hardly a coincidence. It was most likely sparked by its exceptional biological features, Montero said.Through the glass of a fish tank, where academic institutions preserve them and hatcheries put them up for sale, axolotl are hard to spot. Their skin is usually dark to mimic stones — though an albino, pinkish variety can be bred — and they can stay still for hours, buried in the muddy ground of their natural habitats or barely moving at the bottom of their tanks in captivity.

Aside from their lungs, they breathe through their gills and skin, which allows them to adapt to its aquatic environment. And they can regenerate parts of its heart, spinal cord and brain.

A woman holds an axolotl during a media presentation in Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)Yuval Raphael from Israel performs the song “New Day Will Rise” during the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Yuval Raphael from Israel performs the song “New Day Will Rise” during the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)Raphael performed Thursday in the

at the contest in the Swiss city of Basel, securing enough votes from viewers to secure a place in Saturday’s final with her anthemic song “New Day Will Rise.” Oddsmakers make Raphael, a survivor of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on a music festival in southern Israel that started the Gaza war, one of the favorites to win the contest.But some would prefer she was not here. A handful of protesters attempted to disrupt a rehearsal by Raphael on Thursday with “oversized flags and whistles,” contest organizers said. Videos on social media appeared to show a large Palestinian flag being extended in the crowd across several people.