NEW FAMILY OF LIMBLESS AMPHIBIANS FOUND

Researchers have discovered a new family of legless amphibians, commonly known as caecilians in North east India which live in soil and non-venomous. After DNA analysis of the specimen, scientists have confirmed that it is an entirely new family. The new family has been christened Chikilidae and the new genus of Chikila. The Chikilidae is a family of burrowers and exibhit highly specialised reproductive behaviour. The research, which led to the discovery, was carried out over five years in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Assam and Tripura. The discovery is the result of soil digging surveys carried out in 250 localities spread across the Northeast. The scientific name chikilidae is derived from the name used by Garo tribals to refer to legless amphibians.

Until the discovery, there were only nine families of legless amphibians, also called caecillians, found across the wet tropical regions of Southeast Asia, India, Srilanka, parts of East and West Africa, the Seychelles and northern and eastern parts of South America. From morphological and DNA analysis, the researchers show that the new family had evolved independent of other species of caellians starting from the time of the dinosaurs. Its closest relatives  now live in Africa.