Cover Illustration: Untangling caecilian phylogeny: in this issue, San Mauro et al. present new sequence data and phylogenetic results for caecilians, and apply likelihood-based experimental design to make testable predictions about the best sampling regime for future progress. The specimen depicted here is a Caecilia gracilis, an extremely elongate species (approximately 40 cm long in this case). It was collected from mud at CNRS' Nouragues field station, French Guiana. Caecilian amphibians (order Gymnophiona) are readily distinguished from frogs and salamanders by their elongate, annulated bodies completely lacking limbs and girdles. Most of the approximately 175 currently recognized species are tropical, soil-dwelling predators for at least their adult lives. Thus, sampling has been a limiting step in molecular phylogenetic analyses of these infrequently encountered animals. Photograph by David J. Gower.
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