Rubber Eel

Image: brian.gratwicke via Flickr
Typhlonectes natans

It's the Rubber Eel! Occasionally called the Sicilian Worm!

"Sicilian Worm"? Oh dear. Oh dear me, no.

Luckily for us (not so much luck as our awe-inspiring intellect, education and interest in the world around us), WE know that it isn't a worm or a snake or an eel or a Sicilian. It's a Caecilian.

Image: Sibylle Stofer via Flickr

Caecilians are those extraordinary, legless amphibians that use their ridiculously bony skulls to burrow under the earth. T. natans here is a little different from most in that it's entirely aquatic, swimming in rivers and lakes in Colombia and Venezuela. With its big toothy grin, it looks something like a 50 cm (20 in) long sock puppet. A stocking puppet, perhaps.

Image: petechar via Flickr

Aquatic Caecilians still enjoy burrowing in the mud. After all, don't we all like a bit of a mud bath?

Image: petechar via Flickr

Most respiration occurs through their skin, like a lot of amphibians, but T. natans will also rise to the water's surface to breathe air.

They have tiny eyes covered in skin so that they're close to being entirely blind. They must instead rely on their sense of smell to fumble around on the riverbed in search of worms and other meaty things that aren't quick enough to escape.

Many Caecilians don't have a tail, so giving birth looks even more weird then usual

Female Rubber Eels retain their eggs within the body for about 7 months, after which they give birth to around 5 youngsters. The little ones are born with a strange, frilly gill (that kind of stocking) which is lost after a few breaths of air.

With that bit of flamboyant extravagance gone, the young Caecilians can race off like a 2 year old in a supermarket, eating worms off the floor like a 2 year old you really ought to keep a better eye on.

Within a single year they'll be about 25 cm (10 in) long, half the length of their parents.

*sniff* they grow up so fast...