Caeciliidae is the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

of common caecilians. They are found in Central and South America. Like other

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 o ...

s, they superficially resemble worms or snakes. Although they are the most diverse of the caecilian families, the caeciliids do have a number of features in common that distinguish them from other caecilians. In particular, their skulls have relatively few bones, with those that are present being fused to form a solid ram to aid in burrowing through the soil. The mouth is recessed beneath the snout, and there is no tail. Many caeciliids lay their eggs in moist soil. The eggs then hatch into aquatic larvae, which live in seepages in the soil, or in small streams. However, some species lack a larval stage, with the eggs hatching into juveniles with the same form as the adults, or else lack eggs and give birth to live young.

Phylogeny

Traditional taxonomy, which is reflected in the "Scientific Classification" box in this article, categorizes extant amphibia into three orders: ''Anura'' (frogs and toads), ''Caudata'' (newts and salamanders), and ''Gymnophiona'' (caecilians). However, there is considerable debate among paleontologists and molecular geneticists concerning the phylogenetic relationship between amphibians, and indeed whether ''Amphibia'' is a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gr ...

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

or a

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

collection of diverse evolutionary lineages. The more limited debate (operating on the assumption that ''Amphibia'' is a monophyletic clade) is whether ''Caudata'' is more closely related to ''Anura'' (in a shared clade called ''Batrachia'' — the traditional view) or to ''Gymnophiona'' (suggested by research in 2005). The broader debate is whether ''Amphibia'' is monophyletic or polyphyletic. The latter view considers ''Caudata'' and ''Gymnophiona'' to be more closely related to

amniote Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are dis ...

s (reptiles, mammals and birds) than to ''Anura''.

Species

*Genus '' Caecilia'' – common caecilians **'' Caecilia abitaguae'' **'' Caecilia albiventris'' **'' Caecilia antioquiaensis'' **'' Caecilia armata'' **'' Caecilia attenuata'' **'' Caecilia bokermanni'' **'' Caecilia caribea'' **'' Caecilia corpulenta'' **'' Caecilia crassisquama'' **'' Caecilia degenerata'' **'' Caecilia disossea'' **'' Caecilia dunni'' **'' Caecilia flavopunctata'' **'' Caecilia gracilis'' **'' Caecilia guntheri'' **'' Caecilia inca'' **'' Caecilia isthmica'' **'' Caecilia leucocephala'' **'' Caecilia marcusi'' **'' Caecilia mertensi'' **'' Caecilia museugoeldi'' **'' Caecilia nigricans'' **'' Caecilia occidentalis'' **'' Caecilia orientalis'' **'' Caecilia pachynema'' **'' Caecilia perdita'' **'' Caecilia pressula'' **'' Caecilia pulchraserrana'' **'' Caecilia subdermalis'' **'' Caecilia subnigricans'' **'' Caecilia subterminalis'' **'' Caecilia tentaculata'' **'' Caecilia tenuissima'' **''

Caecilia thompsoni ''Caecilia thompsoni'', commonly called Thompson's caecilian, is a species of caecilian in the family Caeciliidae. It is endemic to Colombia. It is the largest of the worm-like caecilians and reaches a length of 1.5 m (5 ft) and can wei ...

'' **'' Caecilia volcani'' *Genus '' Oscaecilia'' – South American caecilians **'' Oscaecilia bassleri'' **'' Oscaecilia elongata'' **'' Oscaecilia equatorialis'' **'' Oscaecilia hypereumeces'' **'' Oscaecilia koepckeorum'' **''

Oscaecilia ochrocephala ''Oscaecilia ochrocephala'' is a species of caecilian in the family Caeciliidae. Distribution ''Oscaecilia ochrocephala'' is most commonly found in Panama and Colombia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, pl ...

'' **'' Oscaecilia osae'' **'' Oscaecilia polyzona'' **''

Oscaecilia zweifeli ''Oscaecilia zweifeli'' is a species of caecilian in the family Caeciliidae. It is a poorly known species only known from few specimens: the holotype from the imprecise type locality, "a small creek tributary to Río Mazaruni" in Guyana, one fr ...

Phylogeny

Species

References

Further reading