deoxyribonucleic acid analysis confirms that an eel - like brute pulled from a Florida channel two years ago is a caecilian , otherwise be intimate as the “ penis serpent . ” The same epithelial duct has since yielded several other specimens , leading to concerns that the non - aboriginal amphibian has take radical in the United States .
“ To our cognition , this represents the first criminal record of a caecilian in Florida or anywhere else in the United States , ” declares newresearchpublished in Reptiles & Amphibians .
The 2 - foundation - foresightful specimen was capture by members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission in Miami ’s Tamiami Canal , also known as the C-4 Canal , on November 7 , 2019 . Personnel with the FWC were impart a routine survey of the canal when they netted the individual alive specimen in shallow water near Miami International Airport .
A penis snake, or Typhlonectes natans, pulled from a Miami canal.Image: Noah Mueller
The animal eventually die in captivity as attempts to feed it run out . The specimen was then sent to the Florida Museum of Natural History for further psychoanalysis , where geneticist describe the species as Typhlonectes natans . The DNA analysis helped to distinguish this specimen from a alike - looking species , Typhlonectes compressicauda , which is widespread in South America . More commonly referred to as a Rio Cauca caecilian , Typhlonectes natans are native to Columbia and Venezuela . Since the capture of this unsightly little guy , FWC members have encounter several more specimens , along with report of sighting in the C-4 Canal .
Caecilians are n’t particular eater , scavenging and preying upon an assortment of pocket-sized animals . One species of tellurian blindworm , Siphonops annulatus , might even bevenomous . In the Western Hemisphere , their chain extends as far north as southerly Mexico , and they can also be found in tropic parts of Africa and southeastern Asia . The ancestors to modern caecilians last in North America more or less 170 million years ago , but apart from these late sightings , the creatures are n’t known to dwell this part of the earth . Caecilians prefer slow - moving bodies of lovesome and shallow urine with aquatic vegetation .
“ Parts of the C-4 Canal are just like that , ” Coleman Sheehy , coach of the Florida Museum ’s herpetology collection and the first author of the new report , explained in astatement . “ This may be an environment where this species can expand . ”
The animal shortly after it was captured.Image: Austin Prechtel
As to how a blindworm end up in the Miami canal , the researchers suspect the dumping of undesirable darling . Indeed , Typhlonectes natans is the most popular species in the caecilian pet trade , and they ’re open of breeding in incarceration .
Important next steps will be to square off how many caecilian are now living in the canal , how far they ’ve circularise , and whether this species has established itself in the canal . The likely ecological impact of this non - native specie is not yet known , represent a further avenue of research .
“ Very niggling is know about these animals in the wild , but there ’s nothing particularly dangerous about them , and they do n’t appear to be serious predators , ” said Coleman . “ They ’ll believably deplete small creature and get eat by larger one . This could be just another non - native coinage in the South Florida premix . ”
The caecilian pulled from the Miami canal.Image: Noah Mueller
Caecilians are shy and have very poor eyesight , though a specialized mother wit reed organ located between their eye and nostrils helps them situate food . Some species like to burrow underground , but Typhlonectes natans prefer novel piss . These animal are n’t snakes or worms , and or else belong to the Gymnophiona ordination of amphibians . The more familiar anuran , salientian , salamander , and newts belong to another order entirely .
Sadly , Florida is no stranger to non - native metal money . The state recentlybannedthe cut-rate sale of invasive reptile , as escaped iguana and snakes have proliferated out of command .
amphibiansAnimalsVertebrates
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