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Skink

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Skinks are the most diverse group of lizards. They make up the family Scincidae which shares the superfamily or infraorder Scincomorpha with several other lizard families, including Lacertidae (the "true" or wall lizards). Scincidae is the largest of the lizard families with about 1,200 species.

Contents

Description

Skinks look roughly like true lizards, but most species have no pronounced neck and relatively small legs. Several genera (e.g., Typhlosaurus) have no limbs at all, others, such as Neoseps, have only reduced limbs. Often, their way of moving resembles that of snakes more than that of other lizards. Skinks usually have long, tapering tails that can be shed and regenerated.

Most skinks are medium sized with a maximum length from the snout to the vent of some 12 cm, although there are a few that grow to larger sizes, such as the Corucia, which can reach 35 cm from snout to vent.

Diet

Skinks are generally carnivorous and largely eat insects, including: crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and caterpillars. They also eat spiders, earthworms, snails, slugs, isopods, other lizards, and small mice.

Habitat

Skinks occur worldwide. Some species are endangered.

Many species are good burrowers. There are more terrestrial or fossorial (burying) species than arboreal (tree-climbing) or aquatic species. Some are "sand swimmers", especially the desert species, such as the Mole skink in Florida. Most skinks are diurnal, so they are active during the day. They like to crawl out on rocks or logs to bask (soak up heat from the sun) during the day.

Breeding

About 55% of the skinks are oviparous, that is, they lay eggs in small clutches. The other 45% give birth to living offspring: they are ovoviviparous.

Predators

Common Predators include Raccoons, Red Foxes, Virginia Opossums, snakes, and raptors.

Classification

Many large genera, Mabuya for example, are still insufficiently studied, and systematics is at times controversial, see e.g. the taxonomy of the Western Skink (Eumeces skiltonianus).

Family Scincidae

External link

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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