The order Gymnophiona (also sometimes called Apoda or Caecilia) is a group of highly specialized tropical fossorial (burrowing) amphibians. Because most are burrowers, they are rarely seen and, until the last two decades, little was known of their biology. They have no widely used common names and are generally called caecilians. They are found in tropical South America, Africa, the Seychelles, the Indian subcontinent and parts of southeast Asia, but are absent from Madagascar and Australasia.