Overview
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Acontias, the lance skinks, is a genus of limbless skinks (family Scincidae) in the African subfamily Acontinae. Most are small animals, but the largest member of the genus is at approximately 40 cm. All members of this genus are live-bearing, sandswimmers with fused eyelids. A recent review 1] 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 are the only genera within the subfamily Acontinae.[1]
Species
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- Acontias aurantiacus
- Acontias bicolor
- Acontias breviceps, Shorthead Lance Skink
- Acontias cregoi
- Acontias gariepensis
- Acontias gracilicauda
- Acontias jappi
- Acontias kgalagadi
- Acontias lineatus
- Acontias litoralis
- Acontias meleagris, Cape Legless Skink
- Acontias namaquensis
- Acontias orientalis
- Acontias percivali, Percival's Lance Skink
- Acontias plumbeus
- Acontias poecilus
- Acontias richardi
- Acontias rieppeli
- Acontias tristis
Acontias plumbeus
Species
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- Acontias aurantiacus
- Acontias bicolor
- Acontias breviceps, Shorthead Lance Skink
- Acontias cregoi
- Acontias gariepensis
- Acontias gracilicauda
- Acontias jappi
- Acontias kgalagadi
- Acontias lineatus
- Acontias litoralis
- Acontias meleagris, Cape Legless Skink
- Acontias namaquensis
- Acontias orientalis
- Acontias percivali, Percival's Lance Skink
- Acontias plumbeus
- Acontias poecilus
- Acontias richardi
- Acontias rieppeli
- Acontias tristis
Acontias plumbeus
References
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Taxonomy
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The Genus Acontias is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 28 species and subspecies in the Genus Acontias: A. (Nessia) · A. (Nessia) didactylus · A. (Nessia) layardi · A. (Nessia) monodactylus · A. breviceps (Short-Headed Legless Skink) · A. burtonii · A. elegans · A. gracilicauda (Thin-Tailed Legless Skink) · A. gracilicauda gracilicauda · A. gracilicauda namaquensis · A. holomelas · A. layardi · A. leucostoma · A. lineatus · A. lineatus lineatus · A. litoralis · A. meleagris (Linnaeus' Lance Skink) · A. meleagris meleagris · A. meleagris orientalis · A. monodactylus · A. niger · A. percivali (Percival's Legless Skink) · A. percivali occidentalis · A. percivali tasmani · A. plumbeus (Giant Lanceolate Skink) · A. poecilus · A. punctatus · A. sarasinorum
References
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- ^ a b 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.
Sources
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