Skinks have an evolutionary tendency towards both elongation and miniaturization, so as they evolve to be longer, they often evolve to be skinnier! This makes length a poor measure of bigness🧪🦎 #Skinktober
Many skink species have evolved reduced limbs or gotten rid of limbs altogether! Limb reduction & loss is a common theme among lizards & snakes academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....#Skinktober 🧪🦎
You all thought it was a bit, but I'm doing it. #Skinktober has begun!🦎🧪 Skinks are a group of lizards known for their (usually) smooth scales and their rapid evolution. There are an estimated 1763 species! The first skink probably lived about 97 million years ago which is before T. rex!
Some skinks have really long tails!
I am going to start off #Skinktober this year with THE skink, Scincus scincus, the sandfish. I have three of them and they are the absolute best. They’re from the Sahara, they have fringed toes for swimming through sand.
Mentioning chytridiomycosis in my fungi lecture tomorrow. I'm gonna tell all about ambhibian decline and how bad it is. I wanted to end on a bright note about prevention or treatment tho, but I can't find essentially any good information on that. 😔 Anyone know more?
Oh, that is good to know! Thank you for helping me better understand best practices for alt text!!!
Herpetologist Wanted!!! We are hiring a Research/Animal Care Technician in Milwaukee. Previous lizard/snake experience required. See attached ad (and alt text) for details. 🧪🦎
