Abstract
IN a paper on the structure and affinities of the Amphiumidæ, published in the newly-issued part of the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (vol. xxiii. No. 123), Prof. Cope has put forward some views as to the position of the Cæcilians or Apodous Batrachians in the Systema Naturæ, which are worthy of careful consideration. The Cæcilians, Prof. Cope observes, are generally regarded as representing a distinct order of the Batrachian class, which bears the name “Apoda,” or “Gymnophiona.” The definition of this order given by Mr. Boulenger in his recently published Catalogue of the specimens of these animals in the British Museum is: “No limbs; tail rudimentary; males with an intromittent copulatory organ; adapted for burrowing.” Of these definitions Prof. Cope maintains that not one is of ordinal value. “The tail in some Cæcilians is distinct. The intromittent copulatory organ in such species as Dermophis mexicanus, Gymnophis proximus, and Herpete ochrocephala is not a special organ, but merely the everted cloaca. The hard papillæ observed by Günther in Ichthyophis glutinosus are wanting in the above-mentioned species, and the protrusion of the cloaca is performed by two special muscles.”
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The Classification of the Cæcilians . Nature 35, 280 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/035280a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035280a0