Scolecomorphinae

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: ParaHoxozoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Olfactores
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Batrachomorpha
Classis: Amphibia
Subclassis: Lissamphibia
Ordo: Gymnophiona

Familia: Scolecomorphidae
Genera (2): Crotaphatrema – Scolecomorphus
Name

Scolecomorphidae Taylor, 1969: 297

Type genus: Scolecomorphus Boulenger, 1883.

Synonymy

Scolecomorphoides — Lescure, Renous & Gasc, 1986: 159 [hiperfamilia]
Scolecomorphoidea — Lescure, Renous & Gasc, 1986: 159 [superfamilia]
Scolecomorphoidae — Lescure, Renous & Gasc, 1986: 159 [epifamilia]
Scolecomorphinae — Lescure, Renous & Gasc, 1986: 159 [subfamilia]

References
Primary references

Taylor, E.H. 1969. A new family of African Gymnophiona. The University of Kansas Science Bulletin 48(10): 297–305. BHL Reference page.
Lescure, J., Renous, S. & Gasc, J.-P. 1986. Proposition d'une nouvelle classification des amphibiens gymnophiones. Mémoires de la Société Zoologique de France 43: 145–177. Reference page.

Additional references

Frost, D.R., Grant, T., Faivovich, J., Bain, R.H., Haas, A., Haddad, C.F.B., de Sá, R.O., Channing, A., Wilkinson, M., Donnellan, S.C., Raxworthy, C.J., Campbell, J.A., Blotto, B.L., Moler, P.E., Drewes, R.C., Nussbaum, R.A., Lynch, J.D., Green, D.M. & Wheeler, W.C. 2006. The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 297: 1–370. DOI: 10.1206/0003-0090(2006)297[0001:TATOL]2.0.CO;2 Paywall; hdl: 2246/5781 Open access. Reference page.
Roelants, K., Gower, D.J., Wilkinson, M., Loader, S.P., Biju, S.D., Guillaume, K., Moriau, L. & Bossuyt, F. 2007. Global patterns of diversification in the history of modern amphibians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104(3): 887–892. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0608378104 Open access Reference page.
Pyron, R.A. & Wiens, J.J. 2011. A large-scale phylogeny of Amphibia including over 2,800 species, and a revised classification of extant frogs, salamanders, and caecilians. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 61(2): 543–583. DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2011.06.012 Paywall Reference page.
Blackburn, D.C. & Wake, D.B. 2011. Class Amphibia Gray, 1825. Pp 39–55 In Zhang, Z.-Q. (ed.) 2011. Animal biodiversity: an outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. Zootaxa 3148: 1–237. Open access. Reference page. Reference page.
Maddin, H.C., Russell, A.P. & Anderson, J.S. 2012. Phylogenetic implications of the morphology of the braincase of caecilian amphibians (Gymnophiona). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 166(1): 160–201. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2012.00838.x Open access Reference page.

Vernacular names
English: Tropical Caecilians

The Scolecomorphidae (from Greek: σκώλεκώς skólekós, 'wormlike' and Greek: μορφή morphḗ, 'form') are a family of caecilians[1] also known as tropical caecilians, buried-eyed caecilians,[1][2] or African caecilians.[3] They are found in Cameroon in West Africa, and Malawi and Tanzania in East Africa.[1] Caecilians are legless amphibians which superficially resemble worms or snakes.

Scolecomorphids have only vestigial eyes, which are attached to the base of a pair of tentacles underneath the snout. Unlike other caecilians, they have only primary annuli; these are grooves running incompletely around the body, giving the animal a segmented appearance. All other caecilians have a complex pattern of grooves, with secondary or tertiary annuli present. Also uniquely amongst tetrapods, the scolecomorphids lack a stapes bone in the middle ear.[4]

At least some species of scolecomorphids give birth to live young, retaining the eggs inside the females' bodies until they hatch into fully formed offspring, without the presence of a free-living larval stage.[4]
Taxonomy

Just six species of scolecomorphids are known, grouped into two genera, as follows:[1][2]

Family Scolecomorphidae

Genus Crotaphatrema Nussbaum, 1985
Crotaphatrema bornmuelleri (Werner, 1899), Bornmuller's caecilian, Cameroon
Crotaphatrema lamottei (Nussbaum, 1981), Mont Oku caecilian, Cameroon
Crotaphatrema tchabalmbaboensis Lawson, 2000, Cameroon
Genus Scolecomorphus Boulenger, 1883
Scolecomorphus kirkii Boulenger, 1883, Kirk's caecilian or Lake Tanganyika caecilian, East Africa
Scolecomorphus uluguruensis Barbour and Loveridge, 1928, Uluguru black caecilian or Nyingwa caecilian, Tanzania
Scolecomorphus vittatus (Boulenger, 1895), ribbon caecilian or banded caecilian, Tanzania

References

Frost, Darrel R. (2019). "Scolecomorphidae Taylor, 1969". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
"Scolecomorphidae". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
"Scolecomorphidae Taylor, 1969". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 30 July 2019.

Nussbaum, Ronald A. (1998). Cogger, H.G.; Zweifel, R.G. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-12-178560-4.

Nussbaum, Ronald A. and Mark Wilkinson (1989). "On the Classification and Phylogeny of Caecilians." Herpetological Monographs, (3), 1-42
San Mauro, Diego; David J. Gower; Oommen V. Oommen; Mark Wilkinson; Rafael Zardoya (November 2004). "Phylogeny of caecilian amphibians (Gymnophiona) based on complete mitochondrial genomes and nuclear RAG1". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 33 (2): 413–427. Bibcode:2004MolPE..33..413S. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.05.014. PMID 15336675.
San Mauro, Diego; Miguel Vences; Marina Alcobendas; Rafael Zardoya; Axel Meyer (May 2005). "Initial diversification of living amphibians predated the breakup of Pangaea" (PDF). American Naturalist. 165 (5): 590–599. doi:10.1086/429523. PMID 15795855.
San Mauro, Diego; David J. Gower; Tim Massingham; Mark Wilkinson; Rafael Zardoya; James A. Cotton (August 2009). "Experimental design in caecilian systematics: phylogenetic information of mitochondrial genomes and nuclear rag1". Systematic Biology. 58 (4): 425–438. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.577.2856. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syp043. PMID 20525595.