''Sphenomorphus sabanus'' is a species of

skink Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. S ...

in the family Scincidae. It is known commonly as the Sabah slender skink.

Authority

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

of this species was deposited at the

Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

(Specimen No. 63671). It is an adult male collected in Sapagaya Forest Reserve in North

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java Isl ...

on July 18, 1950 by Robert F. Inger.

Paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). O ...

s were also deposited at the Field Museum. They include 32 specimens all collected from scattered localities in eastern North Borneo.

Description

The Sabah slender skink is a slender, smooth-scaled, dark grey

that lacks a black spot on the neck and a black

lateral Lateral is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Healthcare *Lateral (anatomy), an anatomical direction * Lateral cricoarytenoid muscle * Lateral release (surgery), a surgical procedure on the side of a kneecap Phonetics *Lateral co ...

stripe. The

ventral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

surface of these lizards is cream-colored. Males of the species have an orange flush on the flanks. Once preserved in alcohol, the color will range from brown to greyish brown.

Habitat

The Sabah slender skink is a terrestrial lizard.

References

External links

The Encyclopedia of Life
{{Taxonbar, from=Q772367 sabanus Endemic fauna of Borneo Reptiles of Indonesia Reptiles of Malaysia Reptiles described in 1958 Taxa named by Robert F. Inger Reptiles of Borneo