Amazops, Wilkinson & Reynolds & Jacobs, 2021

Wilkinson, Mark, Reynolds, Robert P. & Jacobs, Jeremy F., 2021, A new genus and species of rhinatrematid caecilian (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Rhinatrematidae) from Ecuador, Herpetological Journal 31 (1), pp. 27-34 : 28

Amazops gen. nov.

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Diagnosis. Rhinatrematid caecilians with the squamosal contributing to the margin of the orbit.

Content: A single species Amazops amazops , sp. nov., the type by monotypy and by designation.

Etymology: The name is a portmanteau word combining reference to the Amazonian provenance of the type and only known species and the distinctive topological relationships of its eye and orbit, particularly the contribution of the squamosal to the bony margin of the orbit, which is unknown in any other rhinatrematid. As mandated by the code, gender is masculine.

Remarks: Three other features of the only known specimen of this genus are distinctive, known in no other rhinatrematids and might be diagnostic for the genus:lack of contact between the quadrate and maxillopalatine, contact between the squamosal and frontal and the small number of annular grooves that are interrupted by the vent.