The common caecilians are fossorial amphibians of Central and South America, they are also found in sub-Saharan Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. The family contains 24 genera and about 90 species. All of these tend to be found in humid tropical forests. They have a recessed mouth, a tentacle that is anterior to the eye, and they lack a true tail. Some species have live birth (viviparous) whereas others are egg layers (oviparous). The very odd tentacle organ of these unusal animals is used to collect chemicals from the environment, and they are then examined with the Jacobson's organ which then relays the information to the brain. The tentacle's function was not known until 1986, but prior to that date Edward Taylor (1968, The Caecilians of the World, A Taxonomic Review. University of Kansas Press) wrote the following.

"The function of the tentacle is seemingly sensory but there are various opinions as to its specific sense or function. In animals such as caecilians that are lalrgely subterranean in habitat the eye would appear to be of little or no use in either mate-finding or food-finding; since there is no external auditory apparatus, the sense of hearing would seemingly function less well. One concludes that, since the tongue is usually fastened, it is prevented from extrusion from the mouth and cannot take over such functions as it subserves in reptiles. Thus the sense of smell and the tentacular apparatus seemingly must serve together with the tactile sense in the elemental functions of mate-finding and sex recognition, food-finding, and interpreting of temperature, moisture, soil consistency, and predators."

This specimen is most likely Dunn's Caecilian, Dermophis parviceps Dunn, 1924, or something related to it. It was found in a wet Costa Rica forest. All New World known caecillids are live bearing and some species are known to have larvae that feed on secretions of the oviduct after the yolk supply has been exhausted. After birth they feed on soil invertebrates.