They may look soft on the outside, but inside a caecilian’s mouth are dozens of needle-sharp teeth. The teeth are used to grab worms, termites, beetle pupae, mollusks, small snakes, frogs, lizards, and even other caecilians! All food is swallowed whole. Caecilians have toxic glands in their skin that sometimes protect them from being eaten by other animals.

Like salamanders, caecilians produce young in two different ways, depending on the species. Some female caecilians lay eggs in damp holes near water. When the larvae hatch, they have gills and a short, finned tail to help them swim in the water as they feed on plankton. Through a series of changes, the gills are replaced by a single lung, the skin becomes thicker, the annuli develop, and sensory tentacles appear. At this point, the newly developed adult returns to the land and goes underground.

Some species give birth to live young that are fully developed inside the mother before they are born.

Imagine—over 120 species of animals, some as long as we are, that number in the millions on at least 4 continents, and almost no one knows they’re there, let alone ever sees one. That’s probably why almost nothing is known of caecilians’ habits and lifestyle. We still have much to learn about this unusual amphibian!