Cutaneous microbiome of three Bruneian caecilians

The protected Ulu Temburong region of Bruneian Borneo is a hyper diverse area of old growth tropical rainforest that harbors a multitude of unique species. In particular, reptile and amphibian abundance and diversity are high within this region, allowing cryptic species to remain undetected. We collected specimens of the enigmatic and cryptic fossorial amphibians, the caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) from Ulu Temburong National Park in Brunei. Specimens were collected from the exact same location across one week, suggesting that all three specimens highlighted here are possibly from the same family unit. Cutaneous microbiome samples were collected from specimens before they were fixed and preserved. This serves as the first caecilian microbiome description from the Asian subcontinent.