Though she’s just six years old, Marianne Cullen has been around long enough to fall in love with axolotls. Her love for the little amphibians is so strong that she’s been given some credit for helping to save a Harvard research project focused on the cute little critters. Axolotls are small salamanders that live in the water. They are native to Mexico. The critically-endangered animals stand out because of their external gills. The gills fan out behind their heads like a lion’s mane. Their mouth is turned up into a cute smile. They range in color from black to pink. Oh, and they’re some of nature’s best regenerators. "There's more to them than just being cute," Marianne told CBS News. "They can grow back any limb… And there's way other animals that need saving, but this one is my destiny to save." Jessica Whited leads Harvard's research on axolotls. She is a professor of regenerative biology at the Ivy League school. Like many research projects in the US, the funding for Whited’s study was stripped by the Trump administration earlier this year. She was studying the molecular process behind axolotl limb regrowth. The goal of the research was to learn something that could one day help humans with lost limbs. When Marianne heard of the defunding, she made a presentation. She used it to raise more than $1,000. Then she gave the money to Whited’s lab. Federal courts ultimately restored funding to the axolotl research. But Marianne’s donation touched Whited’s team in a time of need. It helped remind them that their work mattered. "Sometimes you know who's fighting for you in life, and sometimes you don't," Whited told CBS. "And that's always the time when you're just like, pause and be like, 'Wow.'" Thought Question: What’s something you care about so much that you’d want to find a way to help or protect it? Gif of axolotl from GIPHY.
