the Aztecs believed that the first axolotl appeared in the lake system around modern day Mexico City when the powerful ...

Axolotls are able to achieve this sort of regeneration ... The story begins with the Aztec God of death and lightning, the Xolotl. As legends have it, he was a monstrous dog that guarded the ...

Monaghan notes that the axolotl is "entrenched in Mexican culture. It's named after an Aztec god, Xolotl." So how did an amphibian found in one lake outside Mexico City take the world by storm?

Legend has it that their namesake — the Aztec god of fire and lightning, Xolotl — disguised himself as a salamander to avoid sacrifice. The axolotl is so culturally revered in Mexico that the ...