Uraeotype
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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):
- Uraeotyphlus gansi Gower, Rajendran, Nussbaum & Wilkinson , 2008
- Uraeotyphlus interruptus Pillai & Ravichandran , 1999
- Uraeotyphlus malabaricus ( Beddome , 1870)
- Uraeotyphlus menoni Annandale , 1913
- Uraeotyphlus narayani Seshachar , 1939
- Uraeotyphlus oommeni Gower & Wilkinson , 2007
- Uraeotyphlus oxyurus ( Duméril & Bibron , 1841)
gallery
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
- Darrel Frost: Uraeotype Peters, 1880 . In: Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference . Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York 1998-2017, accessed November 17, 2018
- Amphibiaweb: List of species of the Ichthyophiidae family
- Uraeotype in the IUCN 2018Red List of Threatened Species.