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]
| Oscaecilia | |
|---|---|
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| |
| Oscaecilia ochrocephala | |
Scientific 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) | |
Description edit
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 edit
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 edit
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b "Caeciliidae". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
- ^ a b Vitt, Laurie J. & Caldwell, Janalee P. (2014). Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles (4th ed.). Academic Press. pp. 452–453.
- ^ 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.