### animal | vertebrate | amphibian:

Caecilian
* All caecilians possess a pair of tentacles , located between their eyes and nostrils.
* Some caecilians are capable of inflicting painful bites and some have poisonous secretions.
* are a major amphibian group restricted to the tropics, mostly in forested areas
  - amphibians that move just like earthworms
* are found in tropical Africa , Asia and Central and South America
  - spottily throughout the African, American, and Asian wet tropics
  - limbless and have a short tail, or none at all
  - primitive amphibians that resemble earthworms
  - the least-known
* are the only order of amphibians that use internal insemination
  - which only use internal insemination
* come in some strikingly colored varieties, including orange and gray with yellow stripes.
* detect prey by a. b. c. d. using their keen eyesight.
* eat earthworms, termites and beetle larvae, and also small lizards.
* exhibit cutanious respiration and high evaporative water loss.
* feed primarily on small invertebrates, including termites and earthworms.
* have no limbs
  - separate large and small intestine, just intestine with very little coiling
  - tail and frogs and toads only have a tail in the larval stage
  - small eyes which are covered by skin for protection
* kill their prey quickly with their sharp teeth.
* lack external limbs and are well adapted for a soil-burrowing lifestyle
  - limbs and resemble snakes or worms
* own a very special organ on their head, it is an extendable small tentacle.
+ Amphibian, Diet, null, Feeding in captivity
  * Caecilians eat earthworms, termites and beetle larvae, and also small lizards. University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0806130660p31 Caecilians rely on their smell to find food. They like to eat earthworms and will find them by picking up their chemical signals. Salamanders and newts are fed a lot of different types of worms. These include blood worms and earthworms. They can eat small fish such as goldfish, fathead minnows and guppies
  - Gymnophiona: Amphibians
  * The order Gymnophiona includes the caecilians. These are long, cylindrical, limbless animals that look like snakes or worms. Their skin has circular folds, increasing their similarity to the segments of earthworms. Some are aquatic but most live underground in burrows they hollow out. Many caecilians give birth to live young, and in the animals that do not do this, the eggs may undergo metamorphosis before they hatch. Caecilians are found in tropical Africa, Asia and Central and South America. There are 171 different species
+ Caecilian, Anatomy
  * Caecilians have no limbs. For this reason, the smaller species look like worms, while the larger species with lengths up to 1.5 m look similar to snakes. The tail is short and the cloaca is near the end of the body. Their skin is smooth and usually dark in colour. Some species have colorful skins, though. Inside the skin are calcite scales
  - Reproduction
  * Caecilians are the only order of amphibians which only use internal insemination. The male Caecilians have a penis-like organ, the phallodeum, which is inserted into the cloaca of the female for 2 to 3 hours. The eggs are guarded by the female. For some species the young caecilians are already metamorphosed when they hatch, other hatch as larvae. The larvae are not fully aquatic, but spend the daytime in the soil near the water. Encyclopedia of reptiles and amphibians'