Sixty years ago, the canals of Mexico City's Xochimilco borough teemed with axolotls – the distinctive salamanders often likened to tiny dragons – so abundant they could be plucked from the water by hand. Today, finding them in their natural habitat is a near impossibility.
This dramatic decline has prompted scientists from Mexico’s National Autonomous University to employ an innovative technique: filtering Xochimilco’s murky waters for traces of the endangered creature’s DNA.
