Acontias

For other uses, see Acontias (disambiguation).
Acontias
Acontias percivali
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia (paraphyletic)
(unranked): Sauria
Order: Squamata (paraphyletic)
Suborder: Lacertilia
Infraorder: Scincomorpha
Family: Scincidae
Subfamily: Acontinae
Genus: Acontias
Cuvier, 1817
Species

See text.

Acontias is a genus of limbless skinks, the lance skinks, (family Scincidae) in the African subfamily Acontinae.[1] Most are small animals, but the largest member of the genus is Acontias plumbeus at approximately 40 cm (16 in) snout-vent length.[1] All members of this genus are live-bearing, sandswimmers, with fused eyelids. A recent review [2] moved species that were formerly placed in the genera Typhlosaurus, Acontophiops, and Microacontias into this genus, as together these form a single branch in the tree of life. This new concept of Acontias is a sister lineage to Typhlosaurus, and these two genera are the only genera within the subfamily Acontinae.[2]

Species

These 21 species are recognized:[3]

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

Gallery

References

  1. 1 2 Branch 2004.
  2. 1 2 Lamb, Trip; Sayantan Biswas; Aaron M. Bauer (2010). "A phylogenetic reassessment of African fossorial skinks in the subfamily Acontinae (Squamata: Scincidae): evidence for parallelism and polyphyly". Zootaxa 2657: 33–46.
  3. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading

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