Prasinohaema

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Prasinohaema
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Scincidae
Subfamily: Sphenomorphinae
Genus: Prasinohaema
Greer, 1974

Prasinohaema (Greek: "green blood") is a genus of skinks characterized by having green blood. This condition is caused by an excess buildup of the bile pigment biliverdin. [1] Prasinohaema species have plasma biliverdin concentrations approximately 1.5-30 times greater than fish species with green blood plasma and 40 times greater than humans with green jaundice. [1] The benefit provided by the high pigment concentration is unknown, but one possibility is that it protects against malaria. [2] [3]

Contents

Geographic range

Species in the genus Prasinohaema are endemic to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. [4]

Species

Species in the genus include: [4]

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

Etymology

The specific names, parkeri and semoni, are in honor of English herpetologist Hampton Wildman Parker and German zoologist Richard Wolfgang Semon, respectively. [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 Austin, Christopher C.; Jessing, Kevin W. (1994). "Green-blood pigmentation in lizards". Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology. 109 (3): 619–626. doi:10.1016/0300-9629(94)90201-1.
  2. Grens, Kerry (2018-05-16). "Lizards' Green Blood Evolved Four Times". The Scientist . Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  3. Malhotra, Anita (23 May 2018). "Some lizards have green blood that should kill them – and scientists can't work out why". The Independent.
  4. 1 2 Genus Prasinohaema at The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  5. 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. (Prasinohaema parkeri, p. 200; P. semoni, p. 240).

Further reading