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Read articles, including Science News stories written for ages 9-14, on the
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- Major twister hits Oklahoma: Its speed, which largely determines the damage it causes, is still unknown
- Why a tornado forms: Tornadoes start with a thunderstorm. But they also require other ingredients, such as instability.
- A mind for math: A part of the brain associated with making memories may also predict success in learning math
FOR KIDS: Caecilians: The other amphibian
Legless creatures live secretive, strange existences underground and underwater
Web edition: May 30, 2012
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Caecilians may look like snakes or worms, but they are neither. They’re amphibians, which means the curious creatures’ closest relatives are frogs and salamanders.
john@measey.com
Caecilians belong to the same group of animals that includes frogs and salamanders. But unlike other amphibians, caecilians lack legs. Some caecilians are as short as a pencil, while others grow as long as a child. Their eyes are tiny and hidden beneath skin and sometimes bone. And they have a pair of tentacles on their face that can sniff out chemicals in the environment.
“The whole creature is really quite bizarre,” says Emma Sherratt, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University.
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