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Issue: Vol. 2391 No. 1: 8 Mar. 2010
Type: Articles
Published: 2010-03-08
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2391.1.3
Page range: 47–60
Abstract views: 62
PDF downloaded: 46

A new species of Rhinatrema Duméril & Bibron (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Rhinatrematidae) from Guyana

Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
Department of Vertebrates, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 29 rue Vautier, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
Amphibia Brazil caecilians French Guiana Guiana Shield herpetology HRXCT Kaieteur South America Suriname systematics taxonomy

Abstract

The first new species of rhinatrematid caecilian in more than 50 years, Rhinatrema shiv sp. nov., is described from Guyana. The type series of 10 specimens differs from the only other species in the genus, R. bivittatum, in having a longer tail, different colour pattern, more acuminate and relatively shorter head, and in several features of the skull and mandible including dentition. Sequence data for 1572 aligned base pairs of mitochondrial DNA are > 15% different between the two species. Rhinatrema shiv is known only from Guyana, and R. bivittatum from French Guiana and far northeastern Brazil. The only reported specimen of the genus from Suriname is not clearly referable to either of the named species.

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