Herpelidae
| Herpelidae | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Herpelidae | ||||||||||||
| Laurent , 1984 |
The Herpelidae are a family of the sneak amphibians (Gymnophiona) that occurs in West and East Africa . The family was set up in 1984 by the Belgian herpetologist Raymond Ferdinand Laurent and was supposed to include all the sneak amphibians of the Old World . However, the Herpelidae were not widely recognized. It was not until 2011 that the family was revalidated through a work by Wilkinson, San Mauro, Sherratt & Gower, but now includes only two African genera and with a completely different diagnosis .
description
Like all sneak amphibians, the Herpelidae are worm-like amphibians without limbs and with a strongly receding tail. They differ from other sneak amphibians by their perforated stapes, an auditory ossicle , and the lack of a separate septomaxillary , a bone found in amphibians and reptiles that lies at the tip of the upper jaw.
Genera and species
- Genus Herpele
Peters , 1880 ; Type genus , West Africa.
- Herpele multiplicata Nieden , 1912
- Herpele squalostoma ( Stutchbury , 1836)
- Genus Boulengerula Tornier , 1896 ; Tanzania , Kenya .
- Boulengerula boulengeri Tornier , 1896
- Boulengerula changamwensis Loveridge , 1932
- Boulengerula denhardti Nieden , 1912
- Boulengerula fischeri Nussbaum & Hinkel , 1994
- Boulengerula niedeni Müller, Measey, Loader & Malonza , 2005
- Boulengerula taitana Loveridge , 1935
- Boulengerula uluguruensis Barbour & Loveridge , 1928
literature
- Wilkinson, M., San Mauro, D., Sherratt, E., Gower, DJ (2011): A nine-family classification of caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona). Zootaxa ISSN 1175-5334 online
