New Caecilian family discovered in India

[Herpetologic]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/st...chikildae.html

[!Teagan]

very very cool, thanks for posting this. Looked like an earthworm at first lol.

[joeysgreen]

Interesting stuff. India certainly is looking like an amphibian hotspot. I was going to guess Western Ghats but it continues to say it's in NE India.

[lordoftheswarms]

Hurray, more caecilians!

[FrogO_Oeyes]

I was intrigued to see these, although I quickly ran into something of a roadblock:

All articles on the subject were news items. Thus far, there is no actual published paper naming or justifying a new family [I've no actual doubt it's forthcoming, but right now it's all headline, no substance]. Making it more confusing...there is no mention anywhere of a genus name "Chikil", "Chikila", "Chikilus" or something of the like. I would have to review the "Code" to be sure of what's allowable, but the current standard is for higher groups (like families) to be named after one of their member genera. Thus "Chikilidae" requires a genus "Chikil*". There may be a more fundamental issue though - one rule I am sure of is that families must use the oldest family name provided for one of its members. There is already a Wiki entry for this family, listing only one genus name - Uraeotyphlus. The family name Uraeotyphlidae already exists, and the genus Uraeotyphlus is currently considered indistinct from Ichthyophis [even OLDER family name Ichthyophiidae]. My guess is that these animals aren't Uraeotyphlus, but have been confused with them in past.

So something's hinky here. My suspicion is that it's mainly due to the fact that everyone is going solely from Biju's interview, and no-one has the actual paper to use to get the facts straight. On the other hand, it would also not be surprising if the family name does a rapid vanishing act. I'll be watching for the actual article.

[joeysgreen]

Their discovery, published Wednesday in a journal of the Royal Society of London,

I had assumed this was the scientific paper. Didn't look myself, and am unfamiliar with the RSL.

[FrogO_Oeyes]

I had assumed this was the scientific paper. Didn't look myself, and am unfamiliar with the RSL.

I ran a search of Google Scholar - got nothing, as in zero, for Chikilidae.
I ran a search of Proceedings B for Gymnophiona and for Chikilidae and got nothing. A search for author Biju also produced nothing.
I checked the table of contents of the most recent five issues...and got nothing!

Then a couple of minutes ago, 'lo and behold, I found a direct link. The paper is available for free:
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.o....full.pdf+html

Type species Herpele fulleri, now Chikila fulleri, with five known undescribed Chikila species. Nearest relatives are true African Herpele, family Herpelidae, but they are not "close" relatives. Most recently confused with Indotyphlus of the Indotyphlidae.

[lovehatepassion]

nice work andrew