Caecilians: Odds and Ends

Summary: In this episode Kiersten and a guest host talk about a few things we know only a little bit about, such as caecilian origins and how they communicate.

 

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

 

Show Notes: 

Caecilians: An Overview https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/caecilians

 

“Petrified Forest Brings the Funk with the World’s Oldest Fossil Caecilian.” Park Paleontology News, Vol 15, No 1, Spring 2023. Https://www.nps.gov/aticles/000/petrified-forest-brings-the-funk-with-the-world-s-oldest-fossil-caecilian.htm

Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

Transcript

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Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

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Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

This episode continues caecilians and the ninth thing I like about them is a bit of this and a bit of that. In this episode we’re going to talk about some of the amazing things that we only know a little bit about and my husband Georgiy will be joining me.

Hello Georgiy!

Georgiy: Hello!

Kiersten: Are you enjoying my series on caecilians?

Georgiy: Da!

Kiersten: I’m so surprised about all the amazing attributes these animals have. I think it’s my favorite research so far!

Georgiy: I’m surprised that they have lived for so long and we hardly know anything about them!

Kiersten: I agree and speaking of which. New information about their fossil history has recently been discovered!

Georgiy: Really?

Kiersten: Yes! In the Chinle Formation of the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, paleontologists have found the oldest caecilian fossils to date.

Georgiy: How old are they?

Kiersten: They are 220 million years old. More than 80 bones from the caecilian named Funcusvermis gilmorei have been found. Scientists are excited about this because it bumps the fossil record of caecilians back about 35 million years. So they are even older than we thought they were. These ancient caecilians have the two rows of teeth like modern day living caecilians but, unlike extant caecilians, they have legs and no tentacles. Finding these fossils answers a question that scientists have had for many years. Where are the Triassic Era caecilians? Now we know!

Georgiy: Does this tell us anything new about modern day caecilians?

Kiersten: Sort of. These fossils help support the hypothesis that living amphibians are more closely related to each other than any of their extinct ancestors. So frogs, salamanders, and caecilians that are alive today are more closely related to each other than their long dead ancestors. Even though modern day amphibians look and act so much different from each other.

Georgiy: That’s interesting.

Kiersten: I think so, too. You know what else is interesting?

Georgiy: What?

Kiersten: Caecilians are both terrestrial and aquatic.

Georgiy: I say again, What?

Kiersten: (laughs) I’ve mentioned this before in a few episodes but I wanted to make it very clear. Some caecilians live on land, terrestrial, and some live underwater, aquatic. The terrestrial species usually live under ground in tunnels, but some live in the thick leaf liter of the tropical forest floor.

Georgiy: Oh…I see. 

Kiersten: Good. Now to throw another curve at you, some species of caecilians live on land as adults but live under water as juveniles.

Georgiy: Whoa! How does that work?

Kiersten: As adults, some caecilian species lay eggs in an underground burrow near fresh water. When the eggs hatch the young make their way to the water where they slither in and spend their larval stage under the water.

Georgiy: How can they breathe?

Kiersten: Oh, good question! While in the egg the young developed external gills to help them breath under water. They also developed lungs so, when they become adults they loose the gills and emerge onto land where they breath air with their lungs. 

Georgiy: That’s just cool! So let me get this straight, some caecilians live their entire lives underground, some spend their entire lives underwater, and some split their lives between the water and the ground.

Kiersten: Exactly! 

Georgiy: This episode has been pretty cool.

Kiersten: But wait, there’s more! Another interesting thing about caecilians is how they communicate. 

Georgiy: Oooo! How do they communicate?

Kiersten: With chemical perception. 

Georgiy: Explain please.

Kiersten: Why certainly. Caecilians are the only amphibians with tentacles. These tentacles are on their face in-between their eyes and nose and detect chemical in the environment. Scientists believe that they also use these to communicate with each other. 

Georgiy: Do they talk to each other a lot?

Kiersten: Most caecilians appear to be solitary, so probably not, but we don’t know much about their social lives. The aquatic caecilian Typhlonectes natans uses chemical cues to find mates. They probably use their tentacles to sense pheromones. It’s highly possible that the terrestrial caecilians do the same thing. 

Georgiy: So they sniff out a good mate.

Kiersten: (laughs) Yes! There is something to be said about a nice cologne.

Well thanks for helping me out today, Georgiy.

Georgiy: You’re welcome.

Kiersten: That all I’ve got for this odds and ends episode. Thanks for joining me for this second to last episode about a little bit of this and a little bit of that about caecilians because it is my ninth favorite thing about them!

 

I would like to take a moment to thank a gentleman at Central Arizona College in Apache Junction, Arizona who went to great lengths to help me find information on the caecilian when I began this series. Thanks Richard, you’re the man!

If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 

 

Join me next week for the final thing I like about caecilians!

 

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This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.