Trachylepis

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Trachylepis
File:African striped skinks (Trachylepis striata) Malolotja.jpg
Trachylepis striata
File:Trachylepis maculilabris mating.jpg
Trachylepis maculilabris mating
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Scincidae
Subfamily: Mabuyinae
Genus: Trachylepis
Fitzinger, 1843
Species

About 80, see text

File:Striped skink, Kruger.jpg
Trachylepis striata, African striped skink, Kruger Park
File:White-lipped Skink - Trachylepis albilabris.jpg
Trachylepis albilabris, Gabon

Trachylepis is a skink genus in the subfamily Mabuyinae found mainly in Africa. Its members were formerly included in the "wastebin taxon" Mabuya, and for some time in Euprepis. As defined today, Trachylepis contains the clade of Afro-Malagasy mabuyas. The genus also contains a species from the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, T. atlantica, and may occur in mainland South America with Trachylepis tschudii and Trachylepis maculata, both poorly known and enigmatic.[1] The ancestors of T. atlantica are believed to have rafted across the Atlantic from Africa during the last 9 million years.[2]

The generic name Trachylepis literally means "rough-scaled", referring to the fact that most of the species, though superficially smooth-scaled, have three or more slight longitudinal keels on their dorsal scales.[3]

Species

[edit | edit source]

The following species are recognized as being valid (listed alphabetically by specific name).[4][5]

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Trachylepis.

References

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  1. ^ Miralles A, Chaparro JC, Harvey MB (2009). "Three rare and enigmatic South American skinks". Zootaxa 2012: 47–68.
  2. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ Trachylepis. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  5. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).. (Mabuya gravenhorstii, p. 106).

Further reading

[edit | edit source]
  • Fitzinger L (1843). Systema Reptilium, Fasciculus Primus, Amblyglossae. Vienna: Braumüller & Seidel. 106 pp. + indices. (Trachylepis, new genus, p. 22). (in Latin).

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