''Microcaecilia iwokramae'' 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 Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Siphonopidae The Siphonopidae are the family of common caecilians. They are found in Central and South America. Like other caecilians, they superficially resemble worms or snakes. They are the sister group to Dermophiidae, also of South America. Siphonopi ...

. 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 ...

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

and only known from its type locality in the

Iwokrama Forest The Iwokrama Forest is a nature reserve of central Guyana located in the heart of the Guiana Shield, one of the four last pristine tropical forests in the world (Congo Basin, Congo, New Guinea, and the Amazon rainforest are the others). It repres ...

. It was first described as ''Caecilita iwokramae'' in the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Caecilita'', before being recognised as belonging to ''Microcaecilia''.

Description

''Microcaecilia iwokramae'' was first thought to be the second known species of lungless caecilian and first from a terrestrial habitat, the other lungless species being the aquatic ''

Atretochoana eiselti ''Atretochoana eiselti'' is a species of caecilian originally known only from two preserved specimens discovered by Sir Graham Hales in the Brazilian rainforest, while on an expedition with Sir Brian Doll in the late 1800s, but rediscovered in 2 ...

''. ''Microcaecilia iwokramae'' is small and terrestrial, and does have a lung. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, found in

, in the scrub of

, was in length, with 102 annuli. Its colour in life was not recorded, but in preservative it was light yellow-brown with mottling. Unlike previously reported, this species does have open external nares, and possesses a single, well-developed lung, and it is similar to other ''Microcaecilia'' in having an orbit mostly covered by bone (closed).

Habitat and conservation

''Microcaecilia iwokramae'' is known from mixed low-stature scrub forest at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. It appears to be reasonably common in the vicinity of the type locality. Specimens could be found by digging soil, particularly under rotting wood or leaf litter or between the buttress roots of trees.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28053843 iwokramae Endemic fauna of Guyana Amphibians of Guyana Amphibians described in 2010 Taxa named by Maureen Ann Donnelly Taxa named by David B. Wake Fauna of the Guianas