''Chthonerpeton perissodus'' is a species of

caecilian Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform or serpentine amphibians. They mostly live hidden in the ground and in stream substrates, making them the least familiar order of amphibians. Caecilians are mostly distributed in the tropics of ...

in the family

Typhlonectidae Typhlonectidae, also known as aquatic caecilians or rubber eels, are a family of caecilians found east of the Andes in South America. They are viviparous animals, giving birth to young that possess external gills. Of the five genera in the fami ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and only known from its imprecise type locality, Rio Pandeiro. Only three specimens are known. The common name Minas Gerais caecilian has been coined for this species.

Description

The

type series In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

consists of three specimens. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

is an adult male measuring in total length. One

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). Of ...

is a female, either maturing or mature, measuring , whereas the other one is poorly preserved and of unknown sex, measuring about . The body is dorsoventrally flattened and wide. There are 95–101 primary annuli (segments). The head is bluntly rounded. The eyes are dorsolaterally oriented and covered by

epidermis The epidermis is the outermost of the three layers that comprise the skin, the inner layers being the dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis layer provides a barrier to infection from environmental pathogens and regulates the amount of water rele ...

. The coloration is relatively uniform, slate gray dorsally and slightly lighter ventrally. There are numerous whitish skin glands present throughout the body. The specific name ''perissodus'' refers to the high number of premaxillary-maxillary teeth compared to other ''Chthonerpeton'' and is derived from Greek (=more than the usual number of) and (=tooth).

Habitat and conservation

The type locality of this species is imprecise, and there is no information on its habitat. Presumably, it is an aquatic species that reproduces through

viviparity Among animals, viviparity is development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. This is opposed to oviparity which is a reproductive mode in which females lay developing eggs that complete their development and hatch externally from the m ...

. Population status and threats it are unknown.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1942132

perissodus ''Perissodus'' is a genus of cichlids endemic to Lake Tanganyika in Africa. They feed on scales. Species There are currently two recognized species in this genus: * '' Perissodus eccentricus'' Liem & D. J. Stewart, 1976 * '' Perissodus microl ...

Amphibians of Brazil Endemic fauna of Brazil Amphibians described in 1987 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot