Uraeotype

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Uraeotype
Uraeotyphlus oxyurus

Uraeotyphlus oxyurus

Systematics
Superclass : Jaw mouths (Gnathostomata)
Row : Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
without rank: Amphibians (Lissamphibia)
Order : Sneak amphibian (Gymnophiona)
Family : Fish rooting (Ichthyophiidae)
Genre : Uraeotype
Scientific name
Uraeotype
Peters , 1879

Uraeotyphlus is a genus of small sneak amphibians (Gymnophiona) that occurs only in southwestern India, especially in the soils of tropical forests in the Western Ghats in Kerala .

features

Uraeotype species become about 30 centimeters long. They are dark gray or brown in color and resemble the fish burrows (Ichthyophiidae) that occur in the same habitat. The original characteristic is that the skull consists of many bones. In contrast to the terminal mouth of the fish-rooting, its mouth is subordinate. Their tentacles are far in front of the eyes, below the nostrils. The body is curled by two-fold skin folds (annuli) and covered by numerous scales. Tertiary annuli are absent. Uraeotype species have a short tail. Like fish-digging, they have tracheal lungs .

Way of life

The way of life and reproduction of the uraeotype species are largely unknown. They burrow alive in the forest floors of their area of ​​distribution and multiply like the nasal burrows and the fish burrows oviparously (laying eggs). For Uraeotyphlus oxyurus , free- living larvae have been demonstrated.

Systematics

The genus was originally the only one of the monotypic family Uraeotyphlidae, but is now counted to the family of the fish burrows (Ichthyophiidae). What both taxa have in common is the clearly visible separation of the two arteries on the outside of the heart and a circumorbital postfrontal .

species

Seven species are known (as of November 18, 2018):

gallery

  • Uraeotype interruptus

  • Uraeotype menoni

  • Uraeotyphlus narayani

  • Uraeotyphlus oxyurus

literature

  • Werner Himstedt: The blind diggers . ISBN 3894324341
  • Wilfried Westheide & Reinhard Rieger: Special Zoology Part 2: Vertebrae and Skull Animals , 1st edition, Spectrum Akademischer Verlag Heidelberg • Berlin, 2004, ISBN 3-8274-0307-3

Web links

Commons : Uraeotype  - collection of images, videos and audio files