Thursday 23 February 2012

New amphibian family: northeastern India


In northeastern India a new family unit of caecilians, the most mysterious bough of the amphibians, has been discovered. Caecilians are very rigid to blemish as they live either underground or under leaf trash that lies on the soil. This is the 10th caecilian family to be recognized, and the team named it Chikilidae, derived from the name used in the local Garo tongue



When the study was complete, the researchers found they had not only an innovative species on their hands, but the first delegate of a thus far unknown family. Their vision is very restricted and their skulls modified for burrowing. Reproduction and rearing of the young are varied. The strangest known case is a species where the offspring eat the mother's skin, which she sheds for the purpose.

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