''Chalcides ragazzii'', commonly called Ragazzi's cylindrical skink, is a
species of
lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...
in the
family Scincidae. The species is
endemic to
Africa.
Geographic range
''C. ragazzii'' is found from
Algeria (
Ahaggar Mountains
The Hoggar Mountains ( ar, جبال هقار, Berber: ''idurar n Ahaggar'') are a highland region in the central Sahara in southern Algeria, along the Tropic of Cancer. The mountains cover an area of approximately 550,000 km.
Geography
This ...
),
Niger, northern
Somalia and northern
Kenya, to
Ethiopia,
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
, and south-eastern
Sahara
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.
Description
''C. ragazzii'' is a large, pentadactyl
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. Ski ...
(that is, it has five digits on each limb).
[
]
Reproduction
''C. ragazzii'' is viviparous.[
]
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 ...
, ''ragazzii'', is in honor of the collector of the holotype, Italian physician Dr. Vincenzo Ragazzi (1856–1929) of the Modena Natural History Society.[. www.reptile-database.org.][Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Chalcides ragazzii'', p. 216).]
References
Further reading
* Boulenger GA (1890). "On the Varieties of ''Chalcides ocellatus'', Forsk." ''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Sixth Series'' 5: 444–445. (''Chalcides ocellatus'' Var. ''Ragazzii'', new variety, p. 444).
Chalcides
Skinks of Africa
Reptiles of North Africa
Vertebrates of Eritrea
Reptiles of Ethiopia
Reptiles of Kenya
Reptiles of West Africa
Reptiles of Somalia
Reptiles described in 1890
Taxa named by George Albert Boulenger
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