- · Grid units represent actual meters (m); human and animals are drawn to the exact same scale with original silhouette aspect ratios preserved.
- · When a size range is recorded (e.g. 1–1.6m), the lower bound is used for scale comparison.
- · Yellow dashed line shows recorded total body length (including tail), which may differ from silhouette width due to posture.
- · Thompson's Caecilian silhouette: PhyloPic — author not recorded · CC0 1.0 (Caecilia)
- · Human silhouette: PhyloPic — NASA · Public Domain Mark 1.0
Thompson's Caecilian
Caecilia thompsoni (Thompson's Caecilian · Thompson's Caecilian)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A length of 1.7 m is comparable to the average height of an adult in Korea (Comparison).
- 💡 Because its appearance is easily mistaken for a snake or earthworm, you can picture it as a garden earthworm scaled up to giant size (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
Thompson's Caecilian is a species endemic to the Magdalena Valley of Colombia and ranks among the largest legless, subterranean amphibians. It is listed as Least Concern (LC, assessed in 2019) on the IUCN Red List.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Legless and elongated, it resembles a snake or earthworm, and adults are reported to exceed 1,700 mm in length. Adult body lengths across all caecilians range from about 60 mm to over 1,700 mm, placing this species at the very top.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
Caecilians generally spend their adult lives underground or in leaf litter and moist soil in the tropics, and fertilization is internal. This species occurs across elevations of 240–1,571 m in Colombia's Magdalena Valley.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2019) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/59532/49358508
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — P7TL
- • iucnredlist.org — 49358508
- • wikidata.org — Q2236564
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC6343317
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC6834723
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — author not recorded · CC0 1.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Caecilia)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.