Eastern Three-lined Skink

About the Eastern Three-lined Skink

The eastern three-lined skink (Acritoscincus duperreyi), also known commonly as the bold-striped cool-skink, is a species of skink, a lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to Australia. A. duperreyi has been extensively studied in the context of understanding the evolution of learning, viviparity in lizards, and temperature- and genetic-sex determination. A. duperreyi is classified as a species of "Least Concern" by the IUCN.

The species has also been placed in the genus Bassiana, with two other species of skink: B. trilineata and B. palynota. Micro-genetic analyses have revealed that the genus Bassiana began to diversify during the Miocene, suggesting that these three lineages started to form between 16.2 and 9.7 million years ago. Individual species in the genus began to diversify as well through the Miocene and into the Early Pleistocene. Within A. duperreyi, population-level diversification between the population on Tasmania, Kangaroo Island, and mainland Australia likely took place during the Upper Pliocene through the Early Pleistocene. Genetic evidence suggests that there are seven distinct lineages of A. duperreyi: five on mainland Australia,... Wikipedia →