Picture
LONDON, - Scientists discover new species of amphibians are happy to eat the skin. This species is the first of its kind found in French Guyana in the last 150 years.

"What we found is another type of skin eaters, but most importantly, it is a species much kekerabatannya with other skin eaters. Means skin-eating animals may be the ancestors of caecilians," said Emma Sherrat from Harvard University who discovered the species This time researching at the Natural History Museum, London.

Group caecilians are amphibians, such as frogs and salamanders, which does not have legs. Fauna entering this type is sometimes regarded as a worm because of the similarity shape.

Fauna has a pink color to gray. His body consists of segments that resemble the ring. Unlike worms, caecilians have sharp teeth to eat worms and fleas. Eyes closed fauna bone so nearly blind. As sensosrik organs, animals have a kind of tentacles on the head that detect based on the chemical composition of the environment.

New species are discovered named Microcaecilia dermatophaga. Animal species is unique because it is more pink than kin. The lack of pigment also makes this animal was gray.

These animals are called skin-eating because his behavior was "a baby". Currently have a puppy, this genus grow extra fat layer of the skin. Puppies and ate layer. Puppies have special gear to do so. When growing up, the tooth is replaced with another gear.

According to scientists, these findings help to unravel the evolution of species of fauna groups caecilians. Until now, there are still a lot of untapped species.

"From an evolutionary perspective, find another skin-eating animals means giving us a better understanding of when these animals evolved. Perhaps these animals have evolved many times and became a key species in evolution. In this case, caecilians have developed very early childbearing behavior in its evolution, "said Sherrat.

Sherrat revealed, caecilians may have existed since the time of the dinosaurs and survived when the dinosaurs became extinct.

"Estimation of molecular tells us that they are approximately 250 million years old, which means the survival of caecilians Whatever killed the dinosaurs and other species. From that, I think is special fauna," explained Sherrat told Physorg, Monday (25/3 / 2013). The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.




Leave a Reply.