''Emoia schmidti'', also known
commonly as Schmidt's emo skink or Schmidt's skink, is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
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
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Scincidae. The species is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found elsew ...
to the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...
.
[ Harlow P (2013). "''Emoia schmidti'' ". The ]IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T196620A2467219. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T196620A2467219.en. Downloaded on 3 March 2020.[
]
Etymology
The specific name, ''schmidti'', is in honor of American herpetologist Karl Patterson Schmidt
Karl Patterson Schmidt (June 19, 1890 – September 26, 1957) was an American herpetologist.
Family
Schmidt was the son of George W. Schmidt and Margaret Patterson Schmidt. George W. Schmidt was a German professor, who, at the time of Karl ...
.[
]
Habitat
The preferred natural habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
of ''E. schmidti'' is forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
, at altitudes from sea level to .[
]
Description
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 several ...
of ''E. schmidti'' has a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of .
Reproduction
''E. schmidti'' is oviparous
Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...
.[ ]Clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...
size is two eggs.[Brown WC (1991).]
References
Further reading
* Adler GH, Austin CC, Dudley R
Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the M ...
(1995). "Dispersal and speciation of skinks among archipelagos in the tropical Pacific Ocean". ''Evolutionary Ecology'' 9: 529–541.
* Brown WC (1954). "Notes on Several Lizards of the Genus ''Emoia'' with Descriptions of New Species from the Solomon Islands". ''Fieldiana Zoology'' 34 (25): 263–276. (''Emoia schmidti'', new species, pp. 270–273, Figure 45a).
*Brown WC (1991). "Lizards of the Genus ''Emoia'' (Scincidae) with Observations on Their Evolution and Biogeography". ''Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences'' (15): i-vi, 1-94. (''Emoia schmidti'', p. 73, Figure 29).
* Klein ER, Harris RB, Fisher RN, Reeder TW (2016). "Biogeographical history and coalescent species delimitation of Pacific island skinks (Squamata: Scincidae: ''Emoia cyanura'' species group)". ''Journal of Biogeography'' 43 (10): 1917–1929.
Emoia
Reptiles of the Solomon Islands
Endemic fauna of the Solomon Islands
Reptiles described in 1954
Taxa named by Walter Creighton Brown
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