Karyology of two species of Caecilians (Caeciliidae: Gymnophiona): Evolution through tandem fusion and sex chromosome dimorphism

Abstract

Mitotic and meiotic chromosomal karyotypes have been described for Gegeneophis ramaswamii and G. usp (unspecified species). Based on the available karyological information from among the eight species of Gegeneophis, a tentative scheme is proposed for their karyotypic phylogeny. A closer scrutiny of one of the two in an otherwise homologous chromosomal pair (chromosome number 13) in the complement is suggestive of a XX-XY sex-chromosome differentiation. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.