oceany: Amphisbaenia

Evidence: 41 • authority: 92

Amphisbaenians facultatively oviposit in ant and termite nests.. Oviposition-site selection is a key maternal decision in oviparous animals, involving trade-offs among incubation conditions, offspring performance, and maternal constraints. In amphisbaenians (worm lizards), a clade of highly specialized fossorial reptiles, oviposition has long been assumed to occur obligatorily in ant and termite nests, implying strong ecological specialization. Here, we re-evaluate this assumption using new field observations and a critical synthesis of published records. We describe a natural oviposition site of the smallhead worm lizard (Leposternon microcephalum) located in a soil cavity with no evidence…

Evidence: 41 • authority: 72

Amphisbaena alba, also known as the red worm lizard or less commonly as the white or white-bellied worm lizard, is a species of amphisbaenian in the reptilian order Squamata. Despite the large geographic range that this species covers, little is known about its ecology due to its secretive habits. A. alba has a diverse diet ranging from plant material to small vertebrates (such as lizards and their eggs, snakes, mice, and other rodents). Numerically, beetles, ants, and spiders compose the majority of their diet; however, ants, insect larvae, beetles, cockroaches, hemipterans, mole crickets, crickets, grasshoppers, termites, spiders, scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and annelids are ingested to s…

Evidence: 33 • authority: 92

ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles.. Trait datasets are increasingly being used in studies investigating eco-evolutionary theory and global conservation initiatives. Reptiles are emerging as a key group for studying these questions because their traits are crucial for understanding the ability of animals to cope with environmental changes and their contributions to ecosystem processes. We collected data from earlier databases, and the primary literature to create an up-to-date dataset of reptilian traits, encompassing 40 traits from 12060 species of reptiles (Archelosauria: Crocodylia and Testudines, Rhynchocephalia, and Squamata: Amphisbaenia, Sauria, and…

Evidence: 33 • authority: 92

Comparative Cranial and Postcranial Osteology of <i>Blanus</i> Species (Squamata: Amphisbaenia) from Türkiye: Insights from Morphological Evolution and Phylogeny.. The genus Blanus (Amphisbaenia: Blanidae) comprises fossorial, limbless reptiles with cryptic external morphology, making species delimitation particularly challenging. This study presents a comprehensive comparative osteological and geometric morphometric investigation of three Blanus species distributed in Türkiye- B. alexandri , B. aporus , and B. strauchi . Using both dry and cleared-and-stained specimens, diagnostic variations in cranial and postcranial skeletal elements, especially elements within the nasal, max…

Evidence: 33 • authority: 92

Evolutionary patterns in squamate mitogenomes: Are selective regimes associated with fossoriality and limblessness?. The snakelike phenotype is characterized by limb reduction and body elongation, and independently evolved in several vertebrate lineages. This phenotype is often interpreted as adaptive to fossoriality or use of complex habitats. Limblessness and fossoriality might impose different energetic requirements for locomotion, affecting selective rates on mitochondrial genes. Previous studies identified signals of differential selection in mitochondrial genes of limbless lizards and fossorial rodents. However, it remains unclear which of these factors most intensely shapes mitochond…

Evidence: 33 • authority: 72

The Iberian worm lizard, Mediterranean worm lizard, or European worm lizard (Blanus cinereus) is a species of reptile in the family Blanidae (worm lizards) of the clade Amphisbaenia. The Iberian worm lizard is locally known as cobra-cega (Portuguese), culebrilla ciega (Spanish), and colobreta cega (Catalan), all meaning "blind snake". Recent studies into the mitochondrial and nuclear genomic data of 47 isolated B. cinereus populations show rather large sequence divergence between two apparent clades, leading some researchers to call for a division of the Iberian worm lizard into two species. While little is known of B. cinereus in comparison with some other reptile species, new insight is g…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Legless lizard may refer to any of several groups of lizards that have independently lost limbs or reduced them to the point of being of no use in locomotion. It is the common name for the family Pygopodidae. These lizards are often distinguishable from snakes on the basis of one or more of the following characteristics: possessing eyelids possessing external ear openings lack of broad belly scales notched rather than forked tongue having two lungs of roughly equal size (snakes have one short and one very long lung) having a very long tail (while snakes have a long body and short tail). Every stage of reduction of the shoulder girdle —including complete loss— occurs among limbless squamates…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Trinidad and Tobago are continental islands with a geologically very recent history of direct land bridge connection to South America. As a result, unlike most of the Caribbean Islands, Trinidad and Tobago supports a primarily South American flora and fauna and has greater diversity of plant and animal species than the Antilles. However, rates of endemism are lower than in the rest of the Caribbean because there has been less time for genetic isolation from mainland populations. Specifically, a land bridge to Venezuela existed fairly recently in Trinidad, allowing fewer opportunities for speciation than in Tobago, as well as a lot of overlap in biodiversity with the South American mainland.…

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Magnetic recording head with effective magnetic gap length less than about 15 μ inches

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Amphisbaenia (called amphisbaenians or worm lizards) is a group of typically legless lizards, comprising over 200 extant species. Amphisbaenians are characterized by their long bodies, the reduction or loss of the limbs, and rudimentary eyes. As many species have a pink body and scales arranged in rings, they have a superficial resemblance to earthworms. While the genus Bipes retains forelimbs, all other genera are limbless. Phylogenetic studies suggest that they are nested within Lacertoidea, closely related to the lizard family Lacertidae. Amphisbaenians are widely distributed, occurring in North America, Europe, Africa, South America, Western Asia and the Caribbean. Most species are less…