Atretochoana eiselti is a species of caecilian originally known only from two preserved specimens discovered by Sir Graham Hales in the Brazilian rainforest, while on an expedition with Sir Brian Doll in the late 1800s, but rediscovered in 2011 by engineers working on a hydroelectric dam project in Brazil.

Atretochoana, however, entirely lacks lungs, and has a number of other features associated with lunglessness, including sealed choanae, and an absence of pulmonary arteries.

[12] The Vienna specimen was the holotype for this species when it was first described by Edward Harrison Taylor in his 1968 monograph Caecilians of the World.

There, it was noticed by the visiting English herpetologist Mark Wilkinson, who then borrowed the specimen to examine it with his American colleague Ronald A. Nussbaum.

[12] Because of these and other distinctive features, Nussbaum and Wilkinson gave this species its own genus when they reported on the results of their research in a 1995 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

[7] Nussbaum and Wilkinson published further studies in 1997 describing in detail the caecilian's anatomy and morphology.

[6] Due to the lack of information, it is classified as Data Deficient by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

[1] In June 2011, an amphibian was photographed near Praia de Marahú on the island of Mosqueiro (near Belém, Brazil) that appeared to be A. eiselti, but was not positively identified.