Today, according to my 12yo, it’s Aquatic Caecilian or Rubber Eel Awareness Day! Prompted by the question, “What are those other amphibians who aren’t frogs or salamanders again?”

#ProjectAnimalia 789: Cayenne caecilian (Typhlonectes compressicauda) A legless amphibian from South America! A bit overwhelmed this week, it was nice to escape into this dark texture. #sciart #dailyart #animalart #scientificillustration #medart #illustration #animalart #caecilian

"These findings highlighted the importance of including the neglected order of caecilians to study amphibian biology and the evolution of pheromone systems." 👏

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Coupling molecular evolution with macroevolutionary transitions in a pheromone system including the three amphibian orders Providing much needed research on #caecilians in Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Rediscovering a #caecilian in the largest megalopolis of South America: an unexpectedly abundant population of Luetkenotyphlus brasiliensis in The Herpetological Journal www.thebhs.org/publications...

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Additional Specimens and New Localities of the Matang #Caecilian, Ichthyophis biangularis (Amphibia, Gymnophiona, Ichthyophiidae), with Notes on Genetic and Geographic Diversity and Natural History in Current Herpetology Picture by authors: clutch with female doi.org/10.5358/hsj....

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Expanding the distribution of the #caecilian Luetkenotyphlus fredi in the Atlantic Forest of Espírito Santo, south-eastern Brazil, with taxonomic notes in The Herpetological Bulletin www.thebhs.org/publications...

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 A new species of Gegeneophis #caecilian (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Grandisoniidae) from the Western Ghats of northern Kerala, India in Zootaxa Meet Gegeneophis bavali! 🥳 www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Cold tolerance estimates for the Rio Cauca #Caecilian (Typhlonectes natans), a novel amphibian invader in the USA, published in Aquatic Invasions aquaticinvasions.arphahub.com/articles.php...

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 #Caecilians maintain a functional long-wavelength-sensitive cone opsin gene despite signatures of relaxed selection and more than 200 million years of fossoriality, published in Evolution @sse-evolution.bsky.social academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 CaecilianTraits, an individual level trait database of #Caecilians worldwide, published in Scientific Data www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 An overview of the postcranial osteology of #caecilians (Gymnophiona, Lissamphibia), published in The Anatomical Record @anatrecord.bsky.social anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 #Caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) as prey: a global synthesis, published in Journal of Natural History (Image by Henrik Bringsøe and Niels Poul Dreyer, of two coral snakes feeding on a caecilian) www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Ichthyophis yangi: A new species of Caecilian from China. sciencythoughts.blogspot.com/2024/12/icht...

The most exciting find of my recent fieldwork: the Montane Mahé Caecilian. Only found on the highest peak in Seychelles, this Critically Endangered amphibian had not been observed since 2015. 📷: @simonmaddock.bsky.social

🇸🇨 Seychelles has 8 endemic caecilian species. Seven of them can all be found in Morne Seychellois National Park on Mahé island. These limbless amphibians are highly understudied due to their underground burrowing lifestyle. However, the difficulty makes finding one very rewarding!

Research 2025 #YearInReview 💧 Biologists found an amphibian called a caecilian hiding away in a Florida canal in 2019. The species is native to South America, but a recent study by Coleman Sheehy and team show that they're now firmly established in Florida. Paper: journals.ku.edu/reptilesanda...

Here's a Nakon Si Thammarat Caecilian (Ichthyophis supachaii), observed in a shallow rivulet near a forest trail in peninsular Thailand, 2023. Caecilians are amphibians, & generally live underground, although there are some completely aquatic species. #herps #caecilians #NaturePhotography 🌿

#NewSpecies! New caecilian from #vietnam just snuck in: Ichthyophis griseivermis Treatment: treatment.plazi.org/id/7E85E3AC-... Publication: doi.org/10.3897/vz.7... #VertebrateZoology #IchthyophisGriseivermis #FAIRdata #OA #taxonomy #biodiversity #nature #conservation #herps #amphibia #caecilian

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Scent-driven self-recognition in #caecilian amphibians (Gymnophiona): an experimental study in Gegeneophis, publsihed in Journal of Vertebrate Biology bioone.org/journals/jou...

We have (finally) moved to Bluesky

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Establishment of aquatic Rio Cauca #Caecilian, Typhlonectes natans (Fischer 1880) (Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae), in Florida, with notes on their relative abundance, distribution, and natural history

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Re-diagnoses of rhinatrematid genera and description of a new species of Guyanese Rhinatrema Duméril & Bibron, 1841 #caecilian

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 First record of the Normandia #Caecilian Caecilia crassisquama Taylor, 1968 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from Peru

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Cutaneous bacterial microbiome description and new locality record of the poorly known striped #caecilian Ichthyophis asplenius Taylor, 1965 in Bruneian Borneo In Journal of Natural History

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 The Second Species of #caecilian in China In Asian Herpetological Research Meet Ichthyophis yangi from Yunnan China!

Happy New Year #caecilian lovers! There’re 224 species of caecilian (Gymnophiona) as of 31/DEC/2024 according to @AmphibiaWeb Of the 88 new species of amphibians in 2024, just 2 were caecilians. Encouraging naturalists to get out there and dig; new species are waiting for you!

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Two new species of Caecilia (Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from the Ecuadorian humid Chocó In Salamandra Check out the PDF for stunning live and CT scan images of these new species 😍 #caecilian

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 A review of color patterns in Caecilia tentaculata (Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) reveals high frequency of partial leucism In Biodiversity and Conservation #caecilian Caecilia tentaculata with partially leucistic phenotype

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 An Albino Purple #Caecilian (Gymnopis multiplicata) from Drake Bay, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica Albino mother with normal coloured neonates. Photograph by Raby Nuñez Escalante @RandAJournal

More caecilian work incoming!

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 Adipose tissue torsion with localized lymphangiectasia in a Rio Cauca #caecilian Typhlonectes natans

Winning a Best Oral Award!! 🥇

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 @BellaLGonzalez presenting on “Welcome to Miami: Reproductive Traits and Pathogen Potential in Introduced Caecilians”

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 Ranjith Vengot presenting on “Patterns of elevational variation in the distribution of caecilians: A study from a northern Kerala part of the Western Ghats of peninsular”, supervised by @RamKotharambath

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 Avanthika Prakash presents her poster on “Surface activity and circadian rhythm in caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona): new experimental data on animals in captivity” supervised by @RamKotharambath

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 @RamKotharambath presents “New insights into the natural history of Western Ghats caecilians”

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 @QuentinWildlife Quentin Martinez gives us a “Preliminary investigation of the brain and olfactory apparatus of caecilians”

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 Sina Amini presenting on “Unexpected maintenance of the long-wavelength sensitive (LWS) cone opsin in caecilians”

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 Mark Wilkinson @Atretochoana asking “Are cardiovascular and pulmonary systems of caecilians impacted by burrowing?” A topic he’s wanted to look at since his early PhD days…

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 @chungkamei presenting “A taxonomic review of the unstriped forms of the Asian caecilian genus Ichthyophis”

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 Pedro Mailho-Fontana talking on “Milk provisioning in oviparous caecilian amphibians”

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 Symposium organised by @axkupfer @QuentinWildlife @DrClaudiaKoch on “A brief introduction to the diversity of subterranean amphibians and reptiles” with lots of talks on caecilians all morning!

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 Mark Wilkinson @Atretochoana presenting “Systematics of caecilians of the Seychelles” Arguably the most well studied caecilians in the world: “Remarkable diversity in a tiny area”

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 @TorresSanchezM presents “Blind Dates: caecilian amphibians and the evolution of courtship pheromones”

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 @Simon_Maddock giving a touching memorial to Ron Nussbaum, one of the grandfathers of caecilian research

#caecilians at the @WCHerp 10th World Congress of #Herpetology #WCH24 @Simon_Maddock presenting “Living in paradise: comparative phylogeography of Seychelles caecilian amphibians reveals differing evolutionary histories”

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 Little dotty #caecilians: two cases of piebaldism in the neotropical genus Siphonops @HerpNotes

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 Spatial ecology of the Endangered and endemic Sagalla #caecilian Boulengerula niedeniin the Eastern Arc Mountains of Kenya In @BritishHerpSoc

And a VERY pointy snout it is! Image of a cranium in dorsal and lateral view. Image and CT scan by @DrEmSherratt