The pink-tongued skink (''Cyclodomorphus gerrardii)'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

lizard Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Scincidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, where it is also called commonly the pink-tongued lizard. As suggested by these common names, its distinguishing characteristic is a pink tongue as opposed to the blue tongue of lizards of the closely related

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Tiliqua''.

Etymology

The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''gerrardii'', is in honor of British zoologist Edward Gerrard (1810–1910), who was Gray's "right-hand man" at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Geographic range

''C. gerrardii'' is endemic to

. It can be found from

Springwood, New South Wales Springwood is a town in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. Springwood is located 72 kilometres west of the Sydney CBD in the local government area of the City of Blue Mountains. At the , Springwood had a population 8,423 people. ...

, along the eastern coastal country and eastern ranges to the

Cairns Region The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Description

''C. gerrardii'' is a relatively large

of up to total length (including tail). It has a slender body with a long, slender and slightly

prehensile tail A prehensile tail is the tail of an animal that has Adaptation (biology), adapted to grasp or hold objects. Fully Prehensility, prehensile tails can be used to hold and manipulate objects, and in particular to aid arboreal creatures in finding and ...

about the same length as the body. The

limb Limb may refer to: Science and technology *Limb (anatomy), an appendage of a human or animal *Limb, a large or main branch of a tree *Limb, in astronomy, the curved edge of the apparent disk of a celestial body, e.g. lunar limb *Limb, in botany, t ...

s are well developed with long digits and sharp

claw A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or Arthro ...

s. The

neck The neck is the part of the body in many vertebrates that connects the head to the torso. It supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that transmit sensory and motor information between the brain and the rest of the body. Addition ...

is well pronounced, and the

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

is relatively large, wider in males than in females. In

adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...

s the

tongue The tongue is a Muscle, muscular organ (anatomy), organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for chewing and swallowing as part of the digestive system, digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper s ...

is pink. ''C. gerrardii'' has a slate-grey to fawn

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage The fus ...

ground colour with dark grey to brown or black cross bands. These bands are more pronounced in males and less so in females. There are about 20 cross bands from the neck to the tip of the

tail The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...

, which run slightly backwards laterally. The

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

surfaces of ''C. gerrardii'' are white to pinkish or creamy brown and may be marbled on the cross bands. The scales are smooth and, on the head, edged with a darker colour. The tip of the

snout A snout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called a muzzle, Rostrum (anatomy), rostrum, beak or proboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the n ...

is dark in adults with some darker spots on the head. The limbs are spotted or streaked darkly. All juveniles are marked with pronounced black cross bands on a very light grey ground colour. There are several dark spots on the head, especially under the eyes. The tip of the snout is light in colour and the tongue and mouth are blue. Similar species ( Cogger 2000): ''C. gerrardii'' has been associated with the genus '' Tiliqua'' as well as the genus '' Cyclodomorphus'' due to their close relation (previous names: ''Cyclodomorphus gerrardii'' and ''Tiliqua gerrardii''). ''C. gerrardii'' is very similar in appearance to the eastern blue-tongue, ''

Tiliqua scincoides ''Tiliqua scincoides'' (common blue-tongued skink, blue-tongued lizard, common bluetongue) is a species of skink. It is native to Australia as well Tanimbar Island (Maluku Province, Indonesia). Subspecies There are three subspecies: *'' Tiliqua ...

''; however, ''C. gerrardii'' has, true to its common name, a pink tongue as an adult. It is also much more slender than ''T. scincoides'', having a more slender body, a much longer and narrower tail as well as a smaller head. In addition, the limbs are more developed and longer than those of the blue-tongues. Pink-tongued_skink

Ecology and behaviour

''C. gerrardii'' inhabits wet

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...

forests and

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

s as well as moist areas in

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

s. It shelters beneath

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...

, in hollow logs, and in crevices of rocks and trees. Its slender body and limbs are an adaptation for moving in thick undergrowth. ''C. gerrardii''

move Move or The Move may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Move (company), an American online real estate company * Move (electronics store), a defunct Australian electronics retailer * Daihatsu Move, a Japanese car * PlayStation Move, a motion ...

s with lateral undulations on smooth surfaces, but holds its hind limbs close to the body and moves its tail in a side-winding motion when moving through grass and when climbing on branches, using only the forelimbs. Its main diet consists of

snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...

s and

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced ...

s, for which it forages during

twilight Twilight is daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...

hours and at night in summer, and also during the day in cooler months. To crush the shells of snails, ''C. gerrardii'' uses its large and flattened teeth in the back of the upper and lower

jaw The jaws are a pair of opposable articulated structures at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth ...

. ''C. gerrardii'' is a good climber, using its semi-prehensile tail as a supporting aid and, although only partially

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are exclusively arboreal. The hab ...

, climbing trees to feed when necessary. The juveniles seem to climb vegetation more frequently to avoid

predation Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

. When threatened, ''C. gerrardii'' raises its body off the ground to appear larger, and flickers or vibrates its tongue rapidly similar to

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

Breeding biology

In ''C. gerrardii''

courtship Courtship is the period wherein some couples get to know each other prior to a possible marriage or committed romantic, ''de facto'' relationship. Courtship traditionally may begin after a betrothal and may conclude with the celebration of marri ...

occurs in early spring for a period of six weeks, during which time males have been observed to fight. In

mating In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. ''Fertilization'' is the fusion of two gametes. '' Copulation'' is the union of the sex organs of two sexually repr ...

, the male grasps the female's head with his jaws and mounts her. After an estimated

gestation Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals (the embryo develops within the parent). It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregn ...

period of 101 to 110 days, females produce large

litter Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. The waste is objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups, food wrappers, cardboard boxes or plastic bottles, but ...

s of 20 to 30 (largest recorded: 67) live-young in early summer.Wilson SK, Knowles DG (1988). ''Australian Reptiles: A Photographic Reference to the Terrestrial Reptiles of Australia''. Sydney: Collins Australia. 447 pp. . During

birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

, the female holds her hind legs close to her body, as when moving through grass, giving single births about every 30 minutes during which she moves around. The young are born curled up in a foetal membrane, which they eat after breaking free. Immediately after birth, the young start flickering their tongues. The tongue and mouth are dark blue and the ventral surface is black in juveniles, changing to pink and mauve respectively after about three months. The young are independent from straight after birth without any parental care and start feeding on slugs and snails. Age at

sexual maturity Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans, it is related to both puberty and adulthood. ''Puberty'' is the biological process of sexual maturation, while ''adulthood'', the condition of being socially recognized ...

is about 22 months.

Etymology

Geographic range

Description

Ecology and behaviour

Breeding biology

References

Further reading