Scientists have detected snake-shaped dental glands in the cilices, which means that these serpentine creatures could actually be poisonous, an unheard-of trait among amphibians.
Cecilios secrete a substance through their skin that makes them extra viscous. They also discharge a toxic substance from their rear ends to deter predators. And like new investigation Posted today in iScience notes, the cilia can also pack a poisonous bite.
“We think of amphibians (frogs, toads, and the like) as basically harmless,” said Edmund Brodie, Jr., a biologist at Utah State University and co-author of the new study, in a Press release. “We know that several amphibians store unpleasant and poisonous secretions in their skin to deter predators. But knowing that at least one can inflict mouth injuries is extraordinary. “
To be clear, scientists have not shown that the sticky substance from the Cecilian dental glands is actually poisonous, but their preliminary findings certainly hint at the possibility. If true, this would represent “an early evolutionary design of the organs of the oral venom,” Brodie said, and possibly a trait that “evolved in hairs rather than snakes,” he said.
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The snake-shaped zillies are related to salamanders, but are separated by a whopping 250 million years of evolution. Caecilian species can be both aquatic and terrestrial, preferring tropical climates in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The cilia are a mysterious and poorly studied group of vertebrates, but scientists are learning more with each passing study.
In 2018, for example, the same team he found that Siphonops annulatus, a terrestrial species of ringed cecilia, can discharge a mucus-like lubricant from the skin’s glands, allowing them to quickly writhe underground by evading threats. They are also poisonous (instead of being poisonous, which is an active, rather than a passive, way of administering toxins), they secrete toxins from their tail glands, making them an unpleasant surprise for any predator that chases them.
During his latest research on S. annulatusThe researchers stumbled upon another fat-filled gland in the cilia, albeit this time in the upper and lower jaw, and “with long canals that open at the base of each of their spoon-shaped teeth,” Brodie explained.
Further investigation formally identified these features as dental glands, distinguishing them from the slime and venom glands found on your skin. Fascinatingly, these dental glands share a developmental origin with the dental glands found in reptiles, pointing to the potential evolutionary convergence. Researchers from the Butantan Institute in Brazil also participated in the new study.
Brodie and his colleagues believe that these dental glands work when the cilices bite their prey, including worms, termites, frogs, and lizards. This has yet to be proven, but the team suspects that the substance may be secreted by your teeth at the time of the bite. Furthermore, “the groove surrounding the upper jaw that interconnects the teeth appears to play an important role in the even distribution of the discharge during bites,” the authors wrote in the study.
As for the substance itself, a chemical analysis showed that it is a mixture of mucus, lipids, and a protein with properties commonly found in poisonous animals, according to the research.
“Although we have demonstrated the presence of dental glands and their possible role during predation, more evidence is still needed on the precise identity of the proteins present in the secretion, as well as data on the toxic potential of these compounds,” according to the paper.
Obviously more work is needed, but this is a very encouraging result. Cecilios have quickly gone from disgusting, to interesting, to super fascinating. They are not the most pleasing creatures to look at, but they are not boring in any way.
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