Typhlonectidae

Typhlonectes natans

The Typhlonectidae are a family of caecilians ( Gymnophiona ) the disjoint lives in South America. The animals come in the Amazon region and in the basin of the Orinoco, also in the Rio Magdalena, in the tributaries and along the coast of Lake Maracaibo ago. The species of the genus Chthonerpeton live in the area of ​​the Río de la Plata. Some taxonomists place the family as a subfamily Typhlonectinae to Caeciliidae.

Features

The Typhlonectidae 14 to 75 centimeters long. The skull consists, as the end of the grave caecilians, from a few close-knit bones. Nasal bone and Zwischenkieferbein are fused. The mouth is inferior. The choanae have valve flaps. Typhlonectiden are scale-like and tail-less, at the end of the body is only a single Endschuppe. The body is flattened laterally near the back, in conformity to a movement in the water. The body is ringed by fully or partially circumferential skin folds ( annuli ). There are only primary annuli present. Aquatic living species have on the back of a low fin-like fold of skin that runs from the head to the Endschuppe. All Typhlonectiden up on Atretochoana eiselti have Tracheallungen. Atretochoana eiselti is the only Blindwühlenart without lungs and with a length of 70-100 cm and the largest lung -less land vertebrate. The species is so far ( as of 2012) only known from seven specimens.

Way of life

Some species live aquatic, other semi -aquatic. Also aquatic species hold down and back on out of the water. All are good at digging in sand, gravel and mud bottoms, but have lost the ability to move around a straight line with undulations of the skin muscle hose. All species are viviparous ( live-bearing ) and get mature boys who have to go through no metamorphosis.

Genera and species

There are five genera and 13 species:

  • Genus Atretochoana Atretochoana eiselti
  • Chthonerpeton arii
  • Chthonerpeton braestrupi
  • Chthonerpeton exile
  • Chthonerpeton indistinctum
  • Chthonerpeton noctinectes
  • Chthonerpeton onorei
  • Chthonerpeton perissodus
  • Chthonerpeton viviparum
  • Nectocaecillia petersii
  • Potomotyphlus kaupii
  • Typhlonectes compressicauda
  • Typhlonectes natans
Lissamphibia Posterior nasal apertures
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