New species of amphibian from Seychelles is one of world’s smallest caecilians A new species of caecilian (pronounced see-sili-an) amphibian has been discovered and described from the Seychelles. Caecilians are elongate, limbless and superficially worm/eel/snake-like amphibians, more distantly related to the other two main amphibian groups (frogs/toads and salamanders/newts). The new species is formally described in a scientific article published in the journal Zootaxa: Maddock, S.T., Wilkinson, M., Nussbaum, R.A. & Gower, D.J. (2017) A new species of small and highly abbreviated caecilian (Gymnophiona: Indotyphlidae) from the Seychelles island of Praslin, and a recharacterization of Hypogeophis brevis Boulenger, 1911. Zootaxa, 4329 (4), 301–326 The new species was discovered from the island of Praslin, and is thus far known only from a small area approximately in the centre of the island (including in habitat adjacent to the Vallée de Mai). It has been given the scientific name Hypogeophis pti, with the species name (pti) given in reference to the Seychellois Creole spelling of the French petit(e) for small. The new species is not known to exceed 120 mm in total length, and so is one of the world’s smallest caecilians, a title for which it competes with its close relative Hypogeophis brevis, known only from the hills of Mahé island in the Seychelles. The new species has fewer vetebrae than any other caecilian known thus far (less than 70 vertebrae). Caecilians are a poorly known group, with the approximately 210 living species restricted mostly to wet tropical areas, where the adults mostly burrow in loose soils and leaf litter. The Seychelles is exceptional in harbouring a small radiation of seven known species of caecilian that are endemic (found nowhere else). The Seychelles caecilians have been separated from their nearest relatives in southern India ever since the two landmasses separated approximately 65 million years ago. The new species was discovered as part of the UK government’s Darwin Initiative-funded project that ran from 2012-2015. The project was a partnership between The Seychelles’ Seychelles National Park Authority, Seychelles Islands Foundation, Island Conservation Society, National Museum of Seychelles, Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles, and the Ministry of Environment with the UK’s Universities of Kent and Exeter, the Zoological Society of London, and the Natural History Museum. The aims of the project were to improve knowledge, management and conservation of the 12 EDGE (Evolutionary Distinct Globally Endangered) species endemic to the Seychelles. The soil surveys on Praslin that led to the discovery of the new amphibian species were carried out by scientists from the UK with the help of the Seychelles Islands Foundation and Matthieu Labuschagne of the Coco der Mer hotel, under permits issued by the Seychelles Bureau of Standards. If you have information about Seychelles caecilians, you could contact Charles Morel and/or Berthilde Belle in the Natural History Museum, Victoria, Mahé. Specific questions about the scientific publication formally describing the new species, contact Simon Maddock (
[email protected]), David Gower (
[email protected]) or Mark Wilkinson (
[email protected]).
