(n.) A small, burrowing, snakelike, limbless lizard (Anguis fragilis), with minute eyes, popularly believed to be blind; the slowworm; -- formerly a name for the adder.
Example Sentences:
Caecilian
Definition:
(n.) A limbless amphibian belonging to the order Caeciliae or Ophimorpha. See Ophiomorpha.
Example Sentences:
(1) Fine structural and enzyme histochemical observations on ultimobranchial body and parathyroid gland of the caecilian Chthonerpeton are presented.
(2) Cutaneous granular glands are a shared character of adult amphibians, including caecilians, and are thought to be the source of most biologically active compounds in amphibian skin.
(3) In the brain of the Caecilian species Chthonerpeton indistinctum the following enzymes have been demonstrated by means of histochemical techniques: acid phosphatase, alpha-naphthylacetate esterase, acetylcholin esterase.
(4) A crossed rubrospinal tract occurs in anurans, limbed urodeles and reptiles, birds and mammals, but is apparently absent in boid snakes, caecilians and sharks.
(5) The innervation of the musculature of the tongue and the hyobranchial apparatus of caecilians has long been assumed to be simple and to exhibit little interspecific variation.
(6) The ultrastructure of the distal nephron, the collecting duct and the Wolffian duct was studied in a South American caecilian, Typhlonectes compressicaudus (Amphibia, Gymnophiona) by transmission and scanning electron microscopy (TEM, SEM).
(7) Precocious ossification of these and other jaw elements is an evolutionarily derived feature not found in metamorphosing anurans, but shared with some direct-developing caecilians.
(8) Probably in all caecilians, spinal nerves 1 and 2 contribute to the hypoglossal.
(9) Fifteen restriction sites were mapped to the 28S ribosomal RNA gene of individuals representing 54 species of frogs, two species of salamanders, a caecilian, and a lungfish.
(10) The results are in general agreement with previous reports on other caecilian species.
(11) The paraventricular organ is not differentiated in the lungfish (Lepidosiren) and the caecilian (Typhlonectes).
(12) The ultrastructure of the renal corpuscle, the neck segment, the proximal tubule and the intermediate segment of the kidney of a South American caecilian, Typhlonectes compressicaudus (Amphibia, Gymnophiona) was examined by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and freeze-fracture technique.
(13) A study of the ear and its responses to acoustic stimuli was carried out in two caecilian species, Geotrypetes seraphini and Dermophis mexicanus.
(14) Whereas Salamandra salamandra possesses a rubrospinal tract, it is absent in the limbless caecilian Ichthyophis kohtaoensis.
(15) A study of 14 genera representing all six families of caecilians demonstrates that general patterns of innervation by the trigeminal, facial, glossopharyngeal, and vagus nerves are similar across taxa but that the composition of the "hypoglossal" nerve is highly variable.
(16) Of particularly high activity are: the motor neurons in the tegmentum, the nucleus mesencephali trigemini, individual large neurons in the marginal zone of the grey matter of the telencephalon, which seems to be a special character of the Caecilians among the Amphibia.
(17) The structure of the ear is examined in two species of caecilians, Ichthyophis glutinosus and I. orthoplicatus, and the sensitivity to aerial sounds is assessed in terms of the electrical potentials of the cochlea.
(18) The presence of nucleus ruber in urodeles and caecilians (amphibia) was investigated.
(19) These patterns, the lengths of fusion of the contributing elements, and the branching patterns of the hypoglossal are assessed according to the currently accepted hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships of caecilians, and of amphibians.
(20) The pituitary glands of two urodelan species (Mertensiella caucasica, Triturus cristatus) and one one caecilian species (Chthonerpeton indistinctum) were examined with histological (Alcian blue, Brookes' trichrome stain), enzyme histochemical (acid phosphatase, alpha-naphthylacetate-esterase, acetylcholinesterase) and immunofluorescence techniques (anti-carp GTH, anti-ovine prolactin, anti-synthetic alpha-MSH).