The quest to gain protected status for the salamander that is Pennsylvania’s official state amphibian has been a lengthy journey, beginning in April 2010 when the center first petitioned the service to add the hellbender to the endangered species list. “It’s, unfortunately, not uncommon for petitions … to not result in the protection of species for a decade,” said Brian Segee, who, as the center’s senior attorney, serves as the hellbender’s legal counsel. “Many species have gone extinct while waiting for action.” The hellbender – so named, it is said, by early American settlers who described it as “a creature from hell where it’s bent on returning” – is the largest salamander in North America. Its lineage goes back 65 million years, to the time of the dinosaurs. It survived the cataclysm that killed the dinosaurs and the Ice Age, and now, because of human beings, it is in danger of extinction in the Information Age.