Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The word amphibian is derived from the Ancient Greek term ἀμφίβιος (amphíbios), which means 'both kinds of life', ἀμφί meaning 'of both kinds' and βίος meaning 'life'. The term was initially used as a general adjective for animals that could live on land or in water, including seals and otters. [8]
Caecilians (/ s ɪ ˈ s ɪ l i ə n /; New Latin for 'blind ones') are a group of limbless, vermiform (worm-shaped) or serpentine (snake-shaped) amphibians with small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, and this cryptic lifestyle renders caecilians among the least familiar amphibians.
The list below largely follows Darrel Frost's Amphibian Species of the World (ASW), Version 5.5 (31 January 2011). Another classification, which largely follows Frost, but deviates from it in part is the one of AmphibiaWeb , which is run by the California Academy of Sciences and several of universities.
Amphibians are in decline worldwide, with 2 out of every 5 species threatened by extinction, according to a paper published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.
An early branch was the terrestrial reptile-like amphibians, variously called Anthracosauria or Reptiliomorpha. Tulerpeton has been suggested as the earliest member of the line, indicating the split may have happened before the Devonian-Carboniferous transition. [27] Their skulls were relatively deep and narrow compared to other labyrinthodonts.
These amphibians are illegal to own in some US states, including California, Maine, New Jersey, and Washington D.C, for one main reason: the threat they pose to the already struggling native ...
Ichthyophis is a genus of caecilians (limbless amphibians, sometimes called the Asian caecilians) found in Southeast Asia, the southern Philippines, and the western Indo-Australian Archipelago. In Sri Lanka, three species occur. All are found in almost all habitats, but are known to prefer moist ones.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There definitely were no muppets during the Permian Period, but there was a Kermit - or at least a forerunner of modern amphibians that has been named after the celebrity frog.