Abstract

Skinks are the largest and most diverse of the five families of lizards in Australia. The most recent review of the lizard fauna, for example, recognizes 193 species (54 percent of the total; Cogger 1975), but as a result of recent work by several collectors, we now know of at least 242 species. Furthermore, new species are being discovered at a faster rate than in any other family of Australian reptiles (pers. obs.).

Quite justifiably, Australian skinks are receiving considerable attention from researchers whose interests range from cytogenetics (e.g., King 1973 a and band Donnellan 1977) and ecology (e.g., Barwick 1965, Bustard 1970, Pengilley1972, Pianka 1969, Robertson 1976, Smyth 1968, Smyth and Smith 1968 and Spellerberg 1972 a-d) to systematics (e.g., the many papers of Storr cited at the end of this paper) and zoogeography (e.g., Horton 1972, Pianka 1972 and Rawlinson 1974a).

Given the numbers and diversity of Australian skinks and the interest in them, it may be useful to present a subdivision of this fauna that reflects major phylogenetic lineages. Hopefully, such a subdivision will provide a broad conceptual framework for synthesizing both old and new information about these animals.

 
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Bibliographic Data

Short Form
Greer, 1979, Rec. Aust. Mus. 32(8): 339–371
Author
Allen E. Greer
Year
1979
Title
A phylogenetic subdivision of Australian skinks
Serial Title
Records of the Australian Museum
Volume
32
Issue
8
Start Page
339
End Page
371
DOI
10.3853/j.0067-1975.32.1979.459
Language
en
Date Published
30 September 1979
Cover Date
30 September 1979
ISSN (print)
0067-1975
CODEN
RAUMAJ
Publisher
The Australian Museum
Place Published
Sydney, Australia
Subjects
REPTILIA; TAXONOMY
Digitized
19 January 2009
Available Online
03 March 2009
Reference Number
459
EndNote
459.enw
Title Page
459.pdf
File size: 98kB
Complete Work
459_complete.pdf
File size: 2310kB