A stem-group caecilian (Lissamphibia: Gymnophiona) from the Lower Cretaceous of North Africa

Of living amphibian groups, the limbless burrowing caecilians are amongst the most highly specialised, but are the least known. Their fossil record is extremely poor, leaving unresolved questions as to their origins, relationships and early distribution. We describe here caecilian remains from a Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian) microfossil locality near Anoual, Morocco. This material represents the second oldest record for the group, after the Jurassic Eocaecilia of North America, and the earliest caecilian record for Gondwana. It forms the basis of a new genus, Rubricacaecilia. which appears slightly more derived than Eocaecilia, but lacks major features of crown-group taxa. We support the use of Apoda Oppel, 1811 for the crown-group alone, and Gymnophiona Rafinesque 1814 for the clade comprising stem-group taxa + Apoda.