Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Slider

Lerista sp

Description:

I thought this is a small snake!!! it moves just like a snake...I was very surprised when I saw small legs. capturing this picture using my nokia N8. I think this lizard's name is skink..I am not so sure though.

1 Species ID Suggestions

NickAsher
NickAsher 11 years ago
Slider
Lerista sp.


Sign in to suggest organism ID

4 Comments

Aaron_G
Aaron_G 11 years ago

Those are the tiniest legs!

MuhammadYasier
MuhammadYasier 11 years ago

thanks for your suggestion!

NickAsher
NickAsher 11 years ago

Lerista is a diverse (~ 80 species) genus of skink endemic to Australia which is especially notable for the variation in the amount of limb reduction.[1][2] The variation ranges from short-bodied forms with large legs bearing five toes, to elongate forms completely lacking legs. The body length of the lizards is 33–103 millimetres (1.3–4.1 in). Their locomotion is linked to their body shape. The shorter skinks with prominent limbs travel on the surface; the longer skinks with reduced legs tend to burrow more. A phylogenetic tree of Lerista, derived from DNA analysis, reveals that limb loss has happened multiple times within this group.[3][4] Limb loss has occurred relatively recently, in the past 3.6 million years or so.


http://www.kingsnake.com/oz/lizards/skin...
http://www.kingsnake.com/oz/lizards/skin...

NickAsher
NickAsher 11 years ago

I believe this would be a Slider. Some type of Lerista species.

MuhammadYasier
Spotted by
MuhammadYasier

Rockingham, Western Australia, Australia

Spotted on Jan 12, 2013
Submitted on Jan 12, 2013

Related Spottings

Slider Turtle Red Eared Slider Bold-striped robust slider Eastern Robust Slider

Nearby Spottings

Eurasian Coot Pink-eared Duck Hardhead Australasian grebe
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team