Skinks
Skinks (Scincidae) are one of five groups of lizards found in the area - the others are dragons, legless-lizards, geckos and monitors.
Generally skinks have smooth scales (in some species scales may be somewhat iridescent), often lack necks, and legs may be relatively small, reduced or lacking. Several genera have fewer than five toes (digits) on each foot. As a general rule, the longer the digits, the more arboreal the species is likely to be. In species with reduced limbs, their locomotion resembles that of snakes.
Most species of skinks have long, tapering tails, which can be shed if predators grab onto them and which can generally be regenerated, though imperfectly. Species with stumpy tails have no special regenerative abilities.
Skinks are generally carnivorous and in particular insectivorous. Typical prey includes flies, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillar and for some species may include earthworms, millipedes, snails, slugs, isopods. other lizards, and small rodents. Skinks use their tongues to sniff the air and track their prey. They can chase down prey until they corner it or manage to land a bite and then swallow it whole.
Most spend their time underground where they are mostly safe from predators, and a common characteristic is digging and burrowing. Often they dig out tunnels for easy navigation.
Currently there are about 1500 species of skink worldwide, and in Australia about 33 genera and 320 species. However taxonomic research is constantly revising the classification of species.
There is some agreement that skinks consist of three broad branches (clads): Egernia Group (including local genera Cyclodomorphus, Egernia, Liopholis and Tiliqua), Eugongylus Group (including Acritoscincus, Carlia, Menetia, Morethia, Niveoscincus, Nannoscincus, Pseudemoia and Saproscincus), and Sphenomorphus Group (Ctenotus, Eulamprus and Hemiergis).
Announcements
We are super proud to welcome Edgar McNamara @edgarmcnamara to the team!Edgar joins NatureMapr as Junior Platform Engineer and will play a critical role in supporting the platform and our valued custo...
Continue reading
Platform wide attribute changes
New Feature: Moderator Quick Responses!
New priority species lists in the ACT
NatureMapr now receives more records in NSW than ACT
Discussion
Carlia tetradactyla
The number of toes is vitally important in distinguishing between this species and the other species of Hemiergis found on the island, namely H. peronii, which has four toes, whereas this appears to have three.
Hemiergis decresiensis decresiensis
Recent activity
Ctenotus taeniolatus at Bargo, NSW
Ctenotus taeniolatus at Bargo, NSW
Ctenotus taeniolatus at Bargo, NSW
Tiliqua scincoides scincoides at Bargo, NSW
Tiliqua scincoides scincoides at Bargo, NSW
Tiliqua scincoides scincoides at Bargo, NSW
Top contributors
- Christine 188
- SWishart 183
- JohnBundock 164
- KShort 153
- MatthewFrawley 96
- KMcCue 93
- trevorpreston 93
- AaronClausen 75
- AlisonMilton 73
- RodDeb 71
Top moderators
- wombey 1.7K
- WillO 770
- GeoffRobertson 669
- PatrickCampbell 170
- PatrickCampbell2 162
- BrianLR 111
- MichaelMulvaney 82
- DamianMichael 48
- jks 25
- waltraud 24
