Scolecomorphidae

Tropical caecilians
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Gymnophiona
Family: Scolecomorphidae
Taylor, 1969
Genera

Crotaphatrema
Scolecomorphus

The Scolecomorphidae are the family of tropical caecilians (Frost) or African caecilians (ITIS). 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 caecilians, the scolecomorphids lack a stapes bone in the middle ear.[1]

At least some species of scolecomorphids give birth to live young, retaining the eggs inside the females' bodies until they hatch into fully formed offspring, without the presence of a free-living larval stage.[1]

Taxonomy

Just five species of scolecomorphids are known, grouped into two genera, as follows:

Family Scolecomorphidae

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Nussbaum, Ronald A. (1998). Cogger, H.G. & Zweifel, R.G., ed. Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 56. ISBN 0-12-178560-2.
  2. ↑ Frost et al, the amphibian tree of life, 2006