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Caecilians
Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform (worm-shaped) or serpentine (snake-shaped) amphibians with small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, and this cryptic lifestyle renders caecilians among the least familiar amphibians. Modern caecilians live in the tropics of South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia. Caecilians feed on small subterranean creatures, such as earthworms. The body is cylindrical and often darkly coloured, and the skull is bullet-shaped and strongly built. Caecilian heads have several unique adaptations, including fused cranial and jaw bones, a two-part system of jaw muscles, and a chemosensory tentacle in front of the eye. The skin is slimy and bears ringlike markings or grooves and may contain scales. Modern caecilians are a clade, the order Gymnophiona (or Apoda ), one of the three living amphibian groups alongside Anura (frogs) and Urodela (salamanders). Gymnophiona is a crown group, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphibian
Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excluding the amniotes (tetrapods with an amniotic membrane, such as modern reptiles, birds and mammals). All extant taxon, extant (living) amphibians belong to the monophyletic subclass (biology), subclass Lissamphibia, with three living order (biology), orders: Anura (frogs and toads), Urodela (salamanders), and Gymnophiona (caecilians). Evolved to be mostly semiaquatic, amphibians have adapted to inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living in freshwater ecosystem, freshwater, wetland or terrestrial ecosystems (such as riparian woodland, fossorial and even arboreal habitats). Their biological life cycle, life cycle typically starts out as aquatic animal, aquatic larvae with gills known as tadpoles, but some species have devel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rubricacaecilia
''Rubricacaecilia'' is an extinct genus of caecilian (limbless amphibian) from the Berriasian aged Ksar Metlili Formation in Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ....Evans, S. E. & Sigogneau-Rusell, D. (2001A stem-group caecilian (Amphibia: Lissamphibia) from the Lower Cretaceous of Morocco ''Palaeontology'' 44, 259–273. The genus contains a single species, ''Rubricacaecilia monbaroni''. It is known from a nearly complete pseudodentary bone, several fragmentary pseudodentaries, a partial pseudangular, a partial palatine, an atlas, and vertebrae. Based on the available material, ''Rubricacaecilia'' is estimated to have been relatively small, only around 200mm in length. Its morphology is intermediate between older extinct caecilians like Eocaecilia and extant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scolecomorphidae
The Scolecomorphidae (from , 'wormlike' and , 'form') are a family of caecilians also known as tropical caecilians, buried-eyed caecilians, or African caecilians. They are found in Cameroon in West Africa, and Malawi and Tanzania in East Africa. Caecilians are legless amphibians which superficially resemble worms or snakes. Scolecomorphids have only vestigial eyes, which are attached to the base of a pair of tentacles underneath the snout. Unlike other caecilians, they have only primary annuli; these are grooves running incompletely around the body, giving the animal a segmented appearance. All other caecilians have a complex pattern of grooves, with secondary or tertiary annuli present. Also uniquely amongst tetrapods, the scolecomorphids lack a stapes The ''stapes'' or stirrup is a bone in the middle ear of humans and other tetrapods which is involved in the conduction of sound vibrations to the inner ear. This bone is connected to the oval window by its annular ligamen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinlestegophis
''Chinlestegophis'' is a diminutive Late Triassic stereospondyl that has been interpreted as a putative stem caecilian, a living group of legless burrowing amphibians. If ''Chinlestegophis'' is indeed both an advanced stereospondyl and a relative of caecilians, this means that stereospondyls (in the form of caecilians) survived to the present day; historically the group was thought to have gone extinct by the early Cretaceous. ''Chinlestegophis jenkinsi'', the type and only species, is known from two partial skulls discovered in the Chinle Formation in Colorado. History of study ''Chinlestegophis'' was described in 2017 by Jason Pardo, Adam Huttenlocker, and Bryan Small based on two specimens collected in the late 1990s by Small. The genus name is derived from the name of the formation (Chinle), the Greek root ''stego''- ('roof' or 'cover'), and the Greek root -''ophis'' ('serpent'). The species name honors Farish Jenkins, the longtime curator of the Museum of Comparative Zo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caeciliidae
Caeciliidae is the family of common caecilians. They are found in Central and South America. Like other caecilians, they superficially resemble worms or snakes. Although they are the most diverse of the caecilian families, the caeciliids do have a number of features in common that distinguish them from other caecilians. In particular, their skulls have relatively few bones, with those that are present being fused to form a solid ram to aid in burrowing through the soil. The mouth is recessed beneath the snout, and there is no tail. Many caeciliids lay their eggs in moist soil. The eggs then hatch into aquatic larvae, which live in seepages in the soil, or in small streams. However, some species lack a larval stage, with the eggs hatching into juveniles with the same form as the adults, or else lack eggs and give birth to live young. Phylogeny Traditional taxonomy, which is reflected in the "Scientific Classification" box in this article, categorizes extant amphibia into three ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dermophiidae
The Dermophiidae are a family of neotropical caecilians. They are found in Central and South America, and Africa. Like other caecilians, they superficially resemble worms or snakes. They are the only viviparous caecilians (species that give birth to live young) with secondary annuli (rings around the body). Species *Genus '' Dermophis'' **'' Dermophis costaricense'' **'' Dermophis glandulosus'' **'' Dermophis gracilior'' **'' Dermophis mexicanus'' - Mexican burrowing caecilian **'' Dermophis oaxacae'' **'' Dermophis occidentalis'' **'' Dermophis parviceps'' *Genus '' Geotrypetes'' – West African caecilians **'' Geotrypetes angeli'' **'' Geotrypetes pseudoangeli'' **'' Geotrypetes seraphini'', Gaboon caecilian *Genus ''Gymnopis'' – wet forest caecilians **''Gymnopis multiplicata'' **''Gymnopis syntrema ''Gymnopis syntrema'' is a species of caecilian in the family Dermophiidae. It is found in Belize, Guatemala, and possibly Honduras. Its natural habitats are s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough skin texture due to wart-like parotoid glands tend to be called toads, but the distinction between frogs and toads is informal and purely cosmetic, not from taxonomy (biology), taxonomy or evolutionary history. Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforest and associated wetlands. They account for around 88% of extant amphibian species, and are one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is known from the Early Triassic of Madagascar (250Myr, million years ago), but molecular clock, molecular clock dating suggests their divergent evolution, divergence from other amphibians may exte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocaecilia
''Eocaecilia'' is an extinct genus of gymnophionan amphibian from the early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona, United States. One species is described, ''Eocaecilia micropodia''. ''Eocaecilia'' shared some characteristics with salamanders and the now extinct microsaur amphibians. It was of small size, about 15 cm in length. Unlike modern caecilians, which are legless, ''Eocaecilia'' possessed small legs, and while modern caecilians have poorly developed eyes and spend a lot of time under ground, ''Eocaecilias eyes were somewhat better developed. Although the precise ancestry of ''Eocaecilia'' is debated (and other caecilians by extension), it likely resided among the ancestral lepospondyl or temnospondyl Temnospondyli (from Greek language, Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') or temnospondyls is a diverse ancient order (biology), order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered Labyrinth ...Maddin H.C., Jenk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herpelidae
Herpelidae are a family of caecilians, sometimes known as the African caecilians. They are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Like other caecilians, they superficially resemble worms or snakes. They are the sister group to the newly discovered Chikilidae Chikilidae is a family of Indian caecilians, the 10th and most recent (2012) family of caecilians (legless amphibians) to be identified, although the type species, ''Fuller's caecilian, Chikila fulleri'' (formerly ''Herpele fulleri'') was first d .... Distribution Herpelidae occur primarily in Central and East Africa, barely reaching West Africa (southeastern Nigeria), and northern parts of Southern Africa (Malawi, possibly Zambia). Genera There are two genera with ten species in total: * '' Boulengerula'' Tornier, 1896 – Boulenger's caecilians, Usambara bluish-gray caecilians (8 species) * '' Herpele'' Peters, 1880 – Congo caecilians (2 species) References {{Taxonbar, from=Q3086167 Amphibian families Amphibians of S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhinatrematidae
Rhinatrematidae is a family of caecilians, also known as the Neotropical tailed caecilians, American tailed caecilians. or beaked caecilians. They are found in the equatorial countries of South America. They are usually regarded as the most basal of the caecilian families, with numerous characteristics lacking in the other groups. For example, they still possess tails, and their mouths are not recessed on the underside of their heads. They lay their eggs in cavities in the soil. The larvae have external gills, and live in seepage areas until they metamorphose. The adults live in moist soil and leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen .... Taxonomy The 14 species in three genera are: * Genus '' Amazops'' ** '' Amazops amazops'' (Ecuador) * Genus '' Epicrionops'' * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typhlonectidae
Typhlonectidae, also known as aquatic caecilians or rubber eels, are a family of caecilians found east of the Andes in South America. They are viviparous animals, giving birth to young that possess external gills. Of the five extant genera in the family, ''Atretochoana'', ''Potamotyphlus'' and ''Typhlonectes'' are entirely aquatic, while ''Chthonerpeton'' and ''Nectocaecilia'' are semi-aquatic. ''Atretochoana'' reaches in length, but other species in the family range from . A sixth typhlonectid genus, ''Ymboirana'', was recently described and is known exclusively from fossil material. Taxonomy *Genus '' Atretochoana'' **'' Atretochoana eiselti'' *Genus '' Chthonerpeton'' **'' Chthonerpeton arii'' **'' Chthonerpeton braestrupi'' **'' Chthonerpeton exile'' **'' Chthonerpeton indistinctum'' **'' Chthonerpeton noctinectes'' **'' Chthonerpeton onorei'' **'' Chthonerpeton perissodus'' **'' Chthonerpeton viviparum'' *Genus '' Nectocaecilia'' **'' Nectocaecilia petersii'' *Genus '' P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chikilidae
Chikilidae is a family of Indian caecilians, the 10th and most recent (2012) family of caecilians (legless amphibians) to be identified, although the type species, ''Fuller's caecilian, Chikila fulleri'' (formerly ''Herpele fulleri'') was first described in 1904. The discovery that this was a separate lineage resulted from genetic analyses of specimens collected during about 250 soil-digging expeditions over five years that covered every North-East India, Northeast Indian state. A team of biologists led by University of Delhi herpetologist Sathyabhama Das Biju described the family as representing as many as seven species apparently endemic to the region. In September 2012, some of these species were also found in Lawachara National Park in the Sylhet region of northeastern Bangladesh. The family's lineage is believed to have originated in Africa, where their closest living relatives are found. Chikilids grow to about in length. They have very limited eyesight and skulls adapted f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
