the.com/caecilian
the amphibian that gave up legs, eyes, and your attention all at once
means A limbless, worm-like amphibian that burrows underground or swims in tropical streams, often nearly blind and rarely seen by humans.
from From Latin 'caecilia,' a name for a kind of lizard or slow-worm, itself from 'caecus,' meaning 'blind' — the same root that gives us 'caecum,' the blind-ended pouch of the gut. The ancients looked at these eyeless burrowers and named them for what they seemed to lack: sight.
- not a worm
- Amphibian cousin of frogs, despite looking spineless
- skin meals
- Babies peel and eat their mother's fattened skin
- venom hint
- Some have venom glands in their teeth
- buried life
- Most spend lives burrowing underground unseen
- ancient lineage
- Their ancestors slithered before dinosaurs existed
ichthyophis kohtaoensis — a limbless amphibian from southeast asia, discovered in thailand with 300+ vertebrae
caecilia tentaculata — south american caecilian with distinctive tentacles between eye and nostril, found in amazon basin
siphonops annulatus — brazilian caecilian with distinctive annular grooves, one of the most studied caecilian species