Blue-tongued skink

"Blue tongue lizard" redirects here. For the Australian Aboriginal myth, see Bluetongue Lizard.

Blue-tongued skinks
Blotched blue-tongued skink (Tiliqua nigrolutea)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Scincidae
Subfamily:	Egerniinae
Genus:	Tiliqua Gray, 1825 [1]
Species
Eight extant, see text.
Synonyms
Trachydosaurus

Blue-tongued skinks ^[2] comprise the Australasian genus Tiliqua, which contains some of the largest members of the skink family (Scincidae). They are commonly called blue-tongued lizards or simply blue-tongues or blueys in Australia or panana in Indonesia. As suggested by these common names, a prominent characteristic of the genus is a large blue tongue that can be bared as bluff-warning to potential enemies. ^[3] Their tongue can also deform itself and produce a thick mucus in order to catch prey. ^[4] They are relatively shy in comparison with other lizards, and also significantly slower due to their shorter legs.

Systematics and distribution

Blue-tongued skinks are closely related to the genera Cyclodomorphus and Hemisphaeriodon . All species are found on mainland Australia with the exception of Tiliqua gigas, which occurs in New Guinea and various islands of Indonesia. The Tanimbar blue-tongued skink, a subspecies of Tiliqua scincoides, is also found on several small Indonesian islands between Australia and New Guinea. Tiliqua nigrolutea, the blotched blue-tongued skink, is the only species present in Tasmania.

Ecology

Most species of blue-tongued skinks are diurnal, ground-foraging omnivores, feeding on a wide variety of insects, gastropods, flowers, fruits, and berries. ^[5] The pygmy blue-tongue is again the exception, being primarily an ambush predator of terrestrial arthropods. ^[6]

All are ovoviviparous, with litter sizes ranging from 1–4 in the pygmy blue-tongue and shingleback to 5–24 in the eastern and northern blue-tongues. ^[7]

Species

Name	Scientific Name	Picture	Subspecies
Adelaide pygmy blue-tongue skink	T. adelaidensis (W.Peters, 1863)
No common name	†T. frangens [8] Hutchinson & Scanlon, 2009
Indonesian blue-tongued skink	T. gigas (Schneider, 1801)		T. g. gigas, Giant blue-tongued skink; T. g. evanescens, Merauke blue-tongued skink; T. g. keyensis, Key Island blue-tongued skink
Centralian blue-tongued skink	T. multifasciata Sternfeld, 1919
Blotched blue-tongued skink	T. nigrolutea (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)
Western blue-tongued skink	T. occipitalis (W. Peters, 1863)
Shingleback, bobtail	T. rugosa (Gray, 1825)		T. r. aspera, Eastern shingleback; T. r. konowi, Rottnest Island bobtail; T. r. palarra, Shark Bay bobtail; T. r. rugosa, Common shingleback, bobtail
Common blue-tongued skink	T. scincoides (White, 1790)		T. s. chimaerea, Tanimbar blue-tongued skink; T. s. intermedia, Northern blue-tongued skink; T. s. scincoides, Eastern blue-tongued skink
Irian Jaya blue-tongued skink	Tiliqua sp.

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

Extinct species

Multiple extinct species of blue-tongued skinks have been proposed. Tiliqua frangens , the largest known species of the genus, lived during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epoch around the Wellington Caves of New South Wales in Australia. Another extinct species T. laticephala may represent the same taxon as T. frangens. Its nearest relative is the extant T. rugosa , which is half the size and lacks the bony plates of T. frangens. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

Another extinct species T. wilkinsonorum also lived during the Pliocene epoch. The earliest possible species is T. pusilla from the middle Miocene, but researchers question whether this species belong to the genus Tiliqua due to its uncertain phylogenetic position that causes paraphyly. ^[9]

In captivity

Some species of the genus Tiliqua are kept as household pets. They are on average very friendly when raised in captivity, and are often called "the dogs of reptiles". Captive specimens can live 20 years or longer. ^[12]

References

1. Gray, J.E. (1825). "A Synopsis of the Genera of Reptiles and Amphibia, with a Description of some new Species". Annals of Philosophy 10: 193–217. (Tiliqua, new genus, p. 201).
2. Genus Tiliqua at The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
3. Abramjan, Andran (2015). "Why is the tongue of blue-tongued skinks blue? Reflectance of lingual surface and its consequences for visual perception by conspecifics and Predators". The Science of Nature. 102 (7–8): 42. Bibcode:2015SciNa.102...42A. doi:10.1007/s00114-015-1293-4. PMID   26185113. S2CID   16915899.
4. Smith, Tamara L.; Kardong, Kenneth V.; Bels, Vincent L. (1999). "Prey Capture Behavior in the Blue-tongued Skink, Tiliqua scincoides " (PDF). Journal of Herpetology. 33 (3): 362–369. doi:10.2307/1565632. JSTOR   1565632 . Retrieved 24 May 2022.
5. Cogger, H.G. (2000). Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, Sixth Edition. Sydney: Reed New Holland. 808 pp. ISBN   978-1876334338.
6. Department for Environment and Heritage > Pygmy Bluetongue Lizard – fact sheet, Environment.sa.gov.au, retrieved 18 July 2017
7. Turner, Grant (2001). Keeping Blue-Tongue Lizards. Australian Reptile Keeper Publications.
8. Thorn, Kailah M.; Fusco, Diana A.; Hutchinson, Mark N.; Gardner, Michael G.; Clayton, Jessica L.; Prideaux, Gavin J.; Lee, Michael S. Y. (2023). "A giant armoured skink from Australia expands lizard morphospace and the scope of the Pleistocene extinctions". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 290 (2000). doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.0704. ISSN   0962-8452. PMC   10265006 . PMID   37312544.
9. Thorn, K.M.; Fusco, D.A.; Hutchinson, M.N.; Gardner, M.G.; Clayton, J.L.; Prideaux, G.J.; Lee, M.S.Y. (2023). "A giant armoured skink from Australia expands lizard morphospace and the scope of the Pleistocene extinctions". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences. 290 (2000). 20230704. doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.0704. ISSN   1471-2954. PMC   10265006 . PMID   37312544. S2CID   259149033. Supplementary Information
10. Klein, Alice (2023). Extinct lizard was a bizarrely supersized version of modern skinks. New Scientist, 2023-06-14
11. Kenny, Katrina (2023). Meet the biggest and most bizarre skink ever found in Australia. It became extinct 47,000 years ago. The Conversation, 2023-06-14.
12. "Blue-Tongued Skink – Tiliqua". Petmd.com. Retrieved 24 May 2022.

Further reading

• Austin, J.J.; Arnold, E.N. (2006). "Using ancient and recent DNA to explore relationships of extinct and endangered Leiolopisma skinks (Reptilia: Scincidae) in the Mascarene islands". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution39 (2): 503–511. doi : 10.1016/j.ympev.2005.12.011 (HTML abstract).
• Bull, C.M. (1988). "Mate fidelity in an Australian lizard Trachydosaurus rugosus (Scincidae)". Copeia 1987 (3): 749–757.
• Bull, C.M. (1990). "Comparison of displaced and retained partners in a monogamous lizard Tiliqua rugosa". Australian Wildlife Research17: 135–140.
• Valentic, R.A. (1996). "A prey record of the Eastern Blue-tongue Tiliqua scincoides for the common brown snake Pseudonaja textilis ". Monitor 8 (3): 155.
• Wilson, S.; Swan, G. (2023). A Complete Guide to Reptiles of Australia, Sixth Edition. Sydney: Reed New Holland Publishers. ISBN   978-1-92554-671-2. 688 pp. (Blue-tongued skinks, Shinglebacks, Genus Tiliqua, p. 432).

External links

• Bluetongue fact file
• Blue-tongued Lizards in New South Wales