Amphibians · Gymnophiona · Caeciliidae

Bearded Caecilia

Caecilia tentaculata

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The bearded caecilian is one of the largest caecilians in the world: it can exceed eighty centimetres in length. It lives buried in the damp soils of the Amazon rainforest, where it hunts earthworms, termites and other invertebrates. Like the other caecilians it has a compact, reinforced skull adapted to digging by pushing with the head.

Size

40 cm – 90 cm

Lifespan

15 years

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

RainforestFreshwaterCarnivore Nocturnal Solitary Amphibian Rainforest Freshwater

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Fun facts

It is one of the largest caecilians in the world and can exceed eighty centimetres, a size that comes as a surprise in an animal almost nobody sees because it spends its life underground.
It digs by pushing with its head: its skull is heavily ossified and its jaws close through a muscular system unique among vertebrates, with one muscle working in the opposite direction to the usual.
It is viviparous and its embryos scrape the nutritive lining of the mother's oviduct with foetal teeth for months, a layer the mother renews continuously.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (amphibian)
Habitat & environment: Damp soils of rainforest and riverside forest of the Amazon basin and the Guiana Shield
Sexual maturity: 3 years
Gestation / incubation: Internal gestation; the young are born fully formed
Litter / clutch size: 10 live young

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilia_tentaculata