Cryptoblepharus egeriae, the Christmas Island blue-tailed shining-skink, blue-tailed skink, or Christmas Island blue-tailed skink, is a species of skink, a lizard native to Australia's Christmas Island, and is not closely related to the Plestiodon skinks of North America, whose juveniles are known for their blue tails. It is relatively small with a black body with yellow stripes going to a bright blue tail. It is currently extinct in the wild.
| Cryptoblepharus egeriae | |
|---|---|
| |
| 1900 monograph of three Christmas Island reptiles, with the Christmas Island blue-tailed shinning-skink at right. | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Scincidae |
| Genus: | Cryptoblepharus |
| Species: | C. egeriae
|
| Binomial name | |
| Cryptoblepharus egeriae (Boulenger, 1888)
| |
| Synonyms[2] | |
Etymology
The specific name, egeriae, is in honor of HMS Egeria.[3]
Diet
The Christmas Island blue-tailed skinks eats small insects and worms.[citation needed]
Evolutionary relationships
C. egeriae is most closely related to the metallicus group of Cryptoblepharus, native to Australia, with the estimated divergence of C. egeriae from the group taking place around 7 million years ago,[4]
References
- ^ Woinarski, J., Cogger, H., Mitchell, N.M & Emery, J. 2017. Cryptoblepharus egeriae . The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T102327291A102327566. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T102327291A102327566.en. Downloaded on 18 February 2020.
- ^ "Cryptoblepharus egeriae ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
- ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Cryptoblepharus egeriae, p. 81).
- ^ Oliver, Paul M.; Blom, Mozes P. K.; Cogger, Harold G.; Fisher, Robert N.; Richmond, Jonathan Q.; Woinarski, John C. Z. (30 June 2018). "Insular biogeographic origins and high phylogenetic distinctiveness for a recently depleted lizard fauna from Christmas Island, Australia". Biology Letters. 14 (6): 20170696. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2017.0696. PMC 6030605. PMID 29899126.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link)
Further reading
- Boulenger GA (1888). "On the Reptiles of Christmas Island". Proc. Zool Soc. London 1888: 534–536. ("Ablepharus egeriæ ", new species, pp. 535–536).
External links
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