Neotropical tailed caecilians
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Amphibia Order: Gymnophiona Family: Rhinatrematidae Nussbaum, 1977
Genera
Epicrionops Rhinatrema

Rhinatrematidae is the family of neotropical tailed caecilians or beaked caecilians. Members of the family are found in the equatorial countries of South America.

They are usually regarded as the most primitive of the caecilian families, with numerous characteristics lacking in the other groups. For example, they still possess a tail, and the mouth is not recessed on the underside of the head. They lay their eggs in cavities in the soil. The larvae have external gills, and live in seepages until they metamorphose. The adults live in moist soil and leaf litter.¹

Taxonomy

There are nine species in two genera.

Family Rhinatrematidae

• Genus Epicrionops - Beaked Caecilians
  • Epicrionops bicolor - Two-coloured Caecilian (Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia).
  • Epicrionops columbianus - El Tambo Caecilian (Colombia).
  • Epicrionops lativittatus - Eastern Peru Caecilian (Peru).
  • Epicrionops marmoratus - Marbled Caeclian (Ecuador).
  • Epicrionops niger - Black Caeclian (Guyana, Venezuela, and possibly Brazil).
  • Epicrionops parkeri - Parker's Caeclian (Colombia).
  • Epicrionops peruvianus - Marcapata Valley Caecilian (Peru).
  • Epicrionops petersi - Peters' Caecilian (Ecuador, Peru, and possibly Brazil and Colombia).
• Genus Rhinatrema
  • Rhinatrema bivittatum - Two-lined Caecilian (Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname).

References

• 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 and Rafael Zardoya (November 2004). "Phylogeny of caecilian amphibians (Gymnophiona) based on complete mitochondrial genomes and nuclear RAG1". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33: 413–427. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.05.014. 
• San Mauro, Diego; Miguel Vences, Marina Alcobendas, Rafael Zardoya and Axel Meyer (May 2005). "Initial diversification of living amphibians predated the breakup of Pangaea" (^{dead link} – ^{Scholar search}). American Naturalist 165: 590–599. doi:10.1086/429523, http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AN/journal/issues/v165n5/40546/40546.html. 
• Frost, Darrel R. 2004. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 3.0 (22 August, 2004). Electronic Database accessible at http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.php. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA
• AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. [web application]. 2004. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. Available: http://amphibiaweb.org/. Retrieved 26 August 2004