Characters: Amphibian vertebrate "blind worms." Possibly sister group of urodeles.
Characters: small (<32 cm); skull zygokrotaphic; mouth terminal (other families are ventral); tentacle adjacent to orbit; prefrontal fused with palato-maxilla; true tail with caudal vertebrae, caudal muscles and dermal annuli; terrestrial, with aquatic larvae.
Links: AmphibiaWeb Species List- Rhinatrematidae;Gymnophiona (Spanish); A comparative study of locomotion in the caecilians Dermophis...
We determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial (mt) genome of five individual caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) representing five of the six recognized families: Rhinatrema bivittatum (Rhinatrematidae), Ichthyophis glutinosus (Ichthyophiidae), Uraeotyphlus cf.
The sister group relationship between Rhinatrematidae and all other caecilians, that between Ichthyophiidae and Uraeotyphlidae, and the monophyly of the higher caecilians Scolecomorphidae+Caeciliidae+Typhlonectidae, are strongly supported, whereas the relationships among the higher caecilians are less unambiguously resolved.
Analysis of RAG1 is affected by a spurious local rooting problem and associated low support that is ameliorated when outgroups are excluded.
American tailed caecilians live in northern South America, including parts of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Surinam, and Venezuela.
Scientists are not sure whether this is because these animals are rare or because they are highly secretive and difficult to find.
American Tailed Caecilians: Rhinatrematidae - Marbled Caecilian (epicrionops Marmoratus): Species Account
Actually, many species of caecilian occur north of the equator.
Ichthyophiids, many genera of Caecilidae, Rhinatrematidae and Uraetyphlidae all occur north of the equator including the species you keep - Dermophis mexicanus.
Furthermore I'm not sure if it is accurate to equate caecilians to fossorial caudates, especially because at least five genera of caecilians are aquatic.
They are sometimes referred to as Gymnophionans or Apodans.
Family Rhinatrematidae Family Ichthyophiidae Family Uraeotyphlidae Family Caeciliaidae Family Scolecomorphidae Family Typhlonectidae ¡ # F o $ þ " $ þ þ þ+ þÆ & þ " 8 $ þ þ ªÞ ) " f : C ò ó S ° 0 ß S u ¦ ø @` ðH ð $ ð0 “ ”Þ½h ¿ ÿ ? ð ÿÿÿ Ì 33Ì ÌÌÿ ²²² î ï N ðF P ð ( ðÞ ð( ð ð ( ð¦ ð ( ³ ðB 8 ¿ ¿ À ÿ ð ÿ Ô ð ” º _ _ _ P P T 9 n ¬f ð ¨ Class Reptilia This class has several subclasses.
For more information see my source, Classification of Living Reptiles or Animal Diversity Web: Class Reptilia.
