Caecilian

Rare card · No. 62270

Caecilians (New Latin for 'blind ones', from caecus, blind) are a group of limbless, worm-shaped or snake-shaped amphibians, with either small eyes or no eyes, comprising the order Gymnophiona. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, making them some of 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 noodle-like and often dark in color, and the skull is bullet-shaped and strongly built. The caecilian head has several unique adaptations, such as fused skull and jaw bones, a two-part system of jaw muscles, and chemosensory tentacles between the eyes and nostrils. The skin is slimy, with ring-like markings or grooves. Some species have scales underneath the skin. Modern caecilians are a clade, the order Gymnophiona (or Apoda), one of the three living amphibian groups alongside Anura (frogs and toads) and Urodela (salamanders...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Brian Gratwicke from DC, USA, CC BY 2.0