Grandisoniidae Lescure, Renous, and Gasc, 1986

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Grandisoniidae
24 species

Indotyphlini Lescure, Renous, and Gasc, 1986, Mem. Soc. Zool. France, 43: 164. Type genus: Indotyphlus Taylor, 1960. Coined as a tribe.

Grandisoniilae Lescure, Renous, and Gasc, 1986, Mem. Soc. Zool. France, 43: 163. Type genus: Grandisonia Taylor, 1968. Infrafamily. Synonymy by Wilkinson, San Mauro, Sherratt, and Gower, 2011, Zootaxa, 2874: 3.

IndotyphlidaeWilkinson, San Mauro, Sherratt, and Gower, 2011, Zootaxa, 2874: 3. Recognition as a family. 

Grandisoniina — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 269. Subtribe. 

Grandisoniinia — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 269. Infratribe. 

Indotyphlina — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 270. Infratribe. 

Grandisoniidae — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 269. Application of this name as the appropriate family-group name under Art. 24.1 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

English Names

Indo-African Caecilians (Vitt and Caldwell, 2014, Herpetology, 4th Ed.: 454). 

Distribution

Southern and northeastern India [Gegeneophis]; Seychelles Islands; Cameroon; Ethiopia.

Comment

Wilkinson, San Mauro, Sherratt, and Gower, 2011, Zootaxa, 2874: 41-64, segregated the family from a larger Caeciliidae, and restricted it to Gegeneophis, Grandisonia, Hypogeophis, Idiocranium, Indotyphlus, Praslinia, and Sylvacaecilia. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583 (see comment in Amphibia record) on the basis of molecular evidence provided a tree consistent with the monophyly of this group, and with Gegeneophis (Indian) being the sister taxon of the group composed of the Seychelles taxa (Hypogeophis, Praslinia, and Grandisonia), although they did not include in their analysis Indotyphlus, Idiocranium, or Sylvacaecilia. Blackburn and Wake, 2011, In Zhang (ed.), Zootaxa, 3148: 39-55, briefly reviewed the taxonomic history of this taxon. San Mauro, Gower, Cotton, Zardoya, Wilkinson, and Massingham, 2012, Syst. Biol., 61: 661-674, confirmed the placement of this taxon as the sister of Siphonopidae + Dermophiidae. Maddin, Russell, and Anderson, 2012, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 166: 160-201, reported on the braincase of the family and confirmed its phylogenetic placement. Vitt and Caldwell, 2014, Herpetology, 4th Ed., provided a summary of range, diagnosis, life history, and taxonomy. Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 1–738, noted that under the Code the name Grandisoniidae is the appropriate family-group name and otherwise treated this as part of a very enlarged Caeciliidae, although the need for this rank modification is unclear.

Contained taxa (24 sp.):

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