Caecilian Facts

Caecilians are amphibians that superficially resemble earthworms or snakes. Discover facts about caecilians with information from a published biologist in this free video on amphibians.

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Video transcription

Here we have a Caecilian, it's from the genus Geotrypetes. They are found in tropical regions of Southeast Asia, Africa, South America and the Seychelles islands. There are about a hundred and sixty seven species in the world and you can see that they superficially resemble earthworms or snakes. They mostly like to hide underground, as you can see, now that I put it down, it's trying to burrow. This makes them the least explored order of amphibians and wildly unknown. They have this smooth shiny skin, as you can see, and they actually secrete and have like poison glands in the skin. They, as far as amphibians go, they lack limbs, a pelvic girdle and a pectorial girdle. Most of them are quite small, but some species can reach up to a meter long. Due to their underground life, they actually have quite small eyes that are generally covered in skin for protection. Their sight is limited to simple darken-light perception and they have a valve a chemo-sensory tentical that is located between their eyes to hunt for food underground. Caecilians are the only order of amphibians which only use internal insemination and mating can actually last for two to three hours. About twenty five percent of the species are oviparous, meaning that they are egg layers and the eggs are actually guarded by the females. For some species, the young Caecilians are already metamorphosed when they hatched while others hatch as larvae. The larvae are not fully aquatic but they spend the daytime in the soil near the water. The other seventy five percent of the species are vivaparous, meaning they give live birth to already develop offspring. The diet of Caecilians is largely unknown, however, it seems that it mostly consists of insects and invertebrates found in the habitats of their respective species. And interesting fact about this terrestrial vertebrate is that it has two sets of jaw closing muscles whereas most terrestrial vertebrates only has a single set. It is assume that it has two sets for an adaptation for holding the jaws firmly close while they burrow in the ground.