Rubber Eel
The rubber eel (Typhlonectes natans) is a smooth, dark, eel-like amphibian that lives in the rivers and swamps of Colombia and Venezuela. It is an aquatic caecilian and not an eel.
The rubber eel (Typhlonectes natans) is a smooth, dark, eel-like amphibian that lives in the rivers and swamps of Colombia and Venezuela. It is an aquatic caecilian and not an eel.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Rubber Eel in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Tetrapoda lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
An Aquatic Caecilian
Unlike its burrowing relatives, the rubber eel lives in water with a flattened tail for swimming. It must come up to breathe air, which it takes in through lungs and its mouth lining.
Milk for the Young
The female retains the embryos in her oviducts, where they feed on a nutrient-rich secretion, "uterine milk", scraped with their teeth. They are born at a large size.
In the Pet Trade
The animal is sold as an aquarium oddity. See Mexican Burrowing Caecilian.
Rubber Eel at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Typhlonectes natans |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Amphibia |
| Order | Gymnophiona |
| Family | Typhlonectidae |
| Field Guide group | Tetrapoda: Amphibia (Frogs, Salamanders & Caecilians) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Fully aquatic, limbless dark-gray animal with a flattened fin-like tail; sold in pet shops as a 'rubber eel' although it is no fish. |
| IUCN Red List status | Least Concern (LC), assessed 2020 |
| Order | Gymnophiona |
| Habitat | Rivers and swamps |