New amphibian family find for India


The animals, which at first glance resemble worms, live in forest soil and are most closely related to an African group of caecilians.

The females incubate their young for several months without eating.

Writing in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B, the scientists say the animals may be threatened by population growth and slash-and-burn agriculture.

Caecilians are very hard to spot as they live either underground or under leaf litter that lies on the soil.

The new discovery was the result of about 250 soil-digging expeditions over five years that covered every northeast Indian state.

"Caecilians are the most cryptic group of animals, and it's not possible to identify whether it's a new species or genus or family just after collecting it," said SD Biju from the University of Delhi, who led the project.

"We studied the molecules (DNA) and the morphology, both internal and external, to identify the species," he told BBC News.

When the analysis was complete, the researchers found they had not only a new species on their hands, but the first representative of a hitherto unknown family.....Read More

Source: BBC News


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