The petite Praslin caecilian (Hypogeophis pti) is the world’s newest —
and possibly the smallest — caecilian, a type of legless amphibian.
Scientists discover the animal on the island
of Praslin in Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
The new species is the seventh caecilian
species found in the Seychelles, where the amphibians have been evolving for 64
million years.
A team of scientists from Seychelles, the
United States and the United Kingdom has found a new caecilian, perhaps the
smallest species of the legless amphibian on Earth.
“As soon as I saw it I knew it was a new
species,” said Simon Maddock, a conservation biologist at the University of
Wolverhampton in a statement. “[It] is a
very exciting discovery and I was delighted to be able to formally describe it
and present it to the world.”
Maddock and his colleagues discovered what
they’re calling the petite Praslin caecilian (Hypogeophis pti), named for the island of Praslin in Seychelles
where they found it in 2013 and 2014. They reported their findings Oct. 6
in the journal Zootaxa.
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