Oscaecilia

Oscaecilia
Oscaecilia ochrocephala
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Gymnophiona
Clade: Apoda
Family: Caeciliidae
Genus: Oscaecilia
Taylor, 1968
Type species
Caecilia ochrocephala
Cope, 1866
Species

9 species (see text)

Oscaecilia is a genus of caecilians in the family Caeciliidae.[1][2][3] The genus is distributed in southeastern Central America (Costa Rica, Panama) and northern South America, possibly extending into southern Brazil. They are sometimes known as the South American caecilians.[1]

Description

Adult Oscaecilia often exceed 60 cm (24 in) in total length.[3] The diagnostic characters of Oscaecilia include eyes that are covered by bone, presence of splenial teeth, absence of true tail, and a tentacular opening that is directly below the nostril, much closer to it than to the eye.[4]

Species

There are nine recognized species:[1][2]

Binomial name and author Common name
Oscaecilia bassleri (Dunn, 1942) Pastaza River caecilian
Oscaecilia elongata (Dunn, 1942) Yavisa caecilian
Oscaecilia equatorialis Taylor, 1973 Equatorial caecilian
Oscaecilia hypereumeces Taylor, 1968 Joinville caecilian
Oscaecilia koepckeorum Wake, 1984 Quisto Cocha caecilian
Oscaecilia ochrocephala Cope, 1866 Yellow-headed caecilian
Oscaecilia osae Lahanas & Savage, 1992 Osa caecilian, airstrip caecilian
Oscaecilia polyzona (Fischer in Peters, 1880) New Granada caecilian
Oscaecilia zweifeli Taylor, 1968 Tributary caecilian

References

  1. ^ a b c Frost, Darrel R. (2019). "Oscaecilia Taylor, 1968". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Caeciliidae". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  3. ^ a b Vitt, Laurie J. & Caldwell, Janalee P. (2014). Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles (4th ed.). Academic Press. pp. 452–453.
  4. ^ Lahanas, Pete N. & Savage, Jay M. (1992). "A new species of caecilian from the Península de Osa of Costa Rica". Copeia. 1992 (3): 703–708. doi:10.2307/1446146. JSTOR 1446146.