CLASSIFICATION OF URAEOTYPHLUS
PHYLUM :- CHORDATA (Notochord, dorsal tubular nerve cord present and gill slits present )
Group :- CRANIATA ( Definite head. Cranium with brain present )
Sub-phylum :- VERTEBRATA ( vertebral column present)
Division :- GNATHOSTOMATA ( Jaws and paired appendages present )
Super class :- TETRAPODA ( Paired limbs, lungs, bony skeleton and cornified skin)
Class :- AMPHIBIA ( Scaleless glandular skin , have 3 chambered heart , cold blooded, 2 occipital condyles, can live in water and land both )
Order :-GYMNOPHIONA (Vermiform Amphibia without limbs or limb girdles).
Genus :- Uraeotyphlus
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
Uraeotyphlus has been reported from India, Malayasia, South Africa and South America.
There are seven species in this genus, all of which are endemic to the Western Ghats of southwestern India.
HABIT AND HABITAT
Uraeotyphlus also burrows in moist ground. It feeds on small worms.
GENERAL CHARACTERSTICS OF URAEOTYPHLUS
- Uraeotyphlus is worm-like and elongated.
- Limbs are reduced due to burrowing habit.
- Body elongated, vermiform and covered with naked skin in which small dermal scales are embedded. Body divided into head, trunk and tail.
- Teir skull has a relatively complex structure. However, unlike the more ‘primitive’ caecilians, the mouth is recessed below the snout
- Colour of body is brown or black above and white below.
- Small scaleless head contains eyes and nares.
- Eyes are non-functional, indistinct and concealed beneath the slimy skin.
- It has a peculiar sensory tentacular apparatus consisting of protrusible flap-shaped or globular soft tentacle lodged in a groove of maxilla between eye and nostril.
- Respiration through lungs. Right lung is exceptionally large and sac-like.
- Tail is extremely short. Anus sub-terminal.
Special features
This Apoda also reveals combination of primitive and advanced characters. The presence of dermal scales in the skin and number of dermal bones in the skull are primitive characters. While specialized characters are loss of limbs, very short post-anal part and copulatory organs.
Identification
the animal is limbless, slender and has above features, hence it is Uraeotyphlus.
REFERENCES
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraeotyphlus
- Book of Practical Zoology VERTEBRATE by S.S.LAL – Rastogi Publications.
- IMAGE SOURCE https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.inaturalist.org%2Ftaxa%2F28219&psig=AOvVaw1jWNHC_mqhCMPEQPKpRK-V&ust=1603952787351000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=2ahUKEwiekaTy09bsAhVM1HMBHflCAoAQr4kDegUIARDFAQ
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