It's not every morning that you wake up to see this kind of news on the pages of our newspapers.The Telegraph had this picture on its front page this morning. These leg-less amphibians are known as Caecilians.
Caecilians (pronounced seh-SILL-yens) are tropical amphibians that look like large worms or slick snakes. They have no arms or legs, and sometimes it’s hard to tell which end is the head and which is the tail! Their shiny skin is ringed with skin folds called annuli, and they usually come in shades of gray, brown, black, orange, or yellow. Some species have tiny, fish-like scales within the rings. Source.
Some excerpts from the newspaper.
The scientists from the University of Delhi and their counterparts from Belgium and the UK have announced their discovery in a paper that appears today in the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The new family of Caecilians, given the name Chikilidae, is genetically closer to African caecilians than to other legless amphibians found so far across peninsular India.
S.D. Biju, India's leading amphibian researcher, and his PhD student Rachunliu Kamei, discovered the new family during a search for amphibians in the northeast between 2006 to 2010. The search yielded more than five hundred caecilians at 58 sites among the 238 localities surveyed.
The scientists classified the Chiklidae as a new family after studies revealed that these creatures have a distinctive morphology and a unique position on the genetic tree of amphibians.
Looking up the internet I came across more pictures and details. You might like to take a look here and here.
And in other news I'm happy to see bees and butterflies around my flowers.
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| Looks like this one's in a drunken stupor!:) |
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| Butterfly on a calendula |
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| Dahlias and an Orchid tree blooming in a garden attached to a local Cultural Centre. |
The flowering trees of Spring are just beginning to put on a show. Soon our landscape will be ablaze with fiery reds and oranges. Here's a closer look at the bloom of the Orchid tree (below).
This is my contribution to Michelle's Nature Notes. Check out the signs of the season by clicking on the link. I wish all nature lovers a wonderful week!!
13 comments:
That is very interesting about the news article. Wonderful shots of the flowers and bees.
I have to admit I had never heard of Caecilians but just looked them up and found we have reports here today of the discovery of them in your country. I clicked and enlarged the photo and thought the end nearest us looked rather like a finger complete with nail and the eggs like eyeballs...at least you were forewarned of my imagination!! ;-) Anyway, a most interesting find!
How cheering to see such the lovely photos of your colourful blooms and butterflies and bees on what is a very drab and wet day here in England. The snow has gone but we have high winds and rain today which is good in some ways as an official drought was declared here earlier this week!
Interesting information about Caecilians! I'd never heard of them either! Always love your beautiful flowers and butterflies and bees!! Sounds like Spring is definitely on it's way! Hope your week is going well!
Sylvia
I am so happy to see so much research going into amphibians as so many are threatened. These guys are really neat looking.. Oh your part of the world looks so inviting with the flowers, bees and butterflies. I wish I was out there with my camera...Thank you for linking to Nature Notes ...Michelle
I think it's amazing that we still don't know all there is about nature. Actually, I think it's wonderful too as it means we still have much to learn. I think that keeps us humbler than we would be otherwise.
The red flower with the white tips looks like a zinnia, I love them. So interesting they they are still finding new species around the world even today! It almost makes up for the extinct ones, but those are a great loss.
The Caecilians are interesting amphibians. Thanks for sharing the article, I learned something reading about these amphibians. The flower shots are gorgeous. Great photos, have a wonderful day.
Interesting on the find. Nice captures of nature's colors and varied forms of life.
Gorgeous shots! And, the news article is fascinating.
Great job of capturing nature. Thanks for sharing.
so many nice flowers.
I hope I will get the word verification right. :(
Caecilians! It is fascinating, and it is true I can learn something new every day. Thanks for the narrative and the beautiful photos!
I posted this article on my facebook page! I always get so excited when I find positive news about the natural world to counteract all the species teetering on the brink.
I was a little cross though because one article I found described them as 'horrifying!' - every species has it's place and none are horrifying, some are just a little less cuddly than others :)
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