''Caecilia degenerata'', the

Garagoa Garagoa () is a town and municipality in Colombia, located in the Boyacá Department. It covers an area of 191.75 km2 and the urban centre is located at an altitude of above sea level. Parts of the municipality reach altitudes of . It is the ...

caecilian, is a species of

caecilian 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 ...

in the family

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 ha ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and known from the Cordillera Oriental in Boyacá, Santander, and

Cundinamarca Department Department of Cundinamarca (, ) is one of the departments of Colombia. Its area covers (not including the Capital District) and it has a population of 2,919,060 as of 2018. It was created on August 5, 1886, under the constitutional terms pre ...

s. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

s. This subterranean species is apparently common in parts of its range. Deforestation might be a threat to it.

References

degenerata Caecilians of South America Amphibians of the Andes Amphibians of Colombia Endemic fauna of Colombia Altiplano Cundiboyacense Taxa named by Emmett Reid Dunn Amphibians described in 1942 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Caeciliidae-stub