''Nangura spinosa'', the Nangur spiny skink or Nangur skink, is a lizard known from two patches of dry-rainforest in

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. T ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was formerly placed in the monotypic genus ''Nangura'' but was moved to ''

Concinnia ''Concinnia'' is a genus of skinks in the subfamily Lygosominae. Taxonomy and systematics The genus ''Concinnia'' belongs to the Australian Sphenomorphid clade that contains other genera such as ''Ctenotus'', ''Anomalopus'' and the ''Eulamprus' ...

'' following the molecular phylogenetic studies of O'Connor & Moritz (2003) and Skinner and co-authors (2013). It was returned to ''Nangura'' in 2018. This species is known only from two localities; the type locality, now in Nangura National Park, and a much smaller isolated population in Oakview National Park and adjacent Oakview State Forest. The total distribution spans just 42 square kilometers, within which this species occupies less than 4 square kilometers, with an estimated population size of less than 200 individuals. It is threatened by

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

including cats, pigs, dogs, foxes and

cane toads The cane toad (''Rhinella marina''), also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America, but which has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania ...

, by the invasive plant species

Lantana camara ''Lantana camara'' (common lantana) is a species of flowering plant within the verbena family (Verbenaceae), native to the American tropics. It is a very adaptable species, which can inhabit a wide variety of ecosystems; once it has been introduc ...

, which increases fire risk and changes forest structure, and in some sites by logging and road maintenance. Consequently, it is listed as critically endangered under the Australian

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cultu ...

It resembles ''

Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae The prickly skink, or prickly forest skink (''Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae''), is a morphologically and genetically distinctive species of skink endemic to rainforests of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, in north-eastern Austr ...

'' in its spiny scales and like that species it is live bearing. Along with minor differences in

scalation In most biological nomenclature, a scale ( grc, λεπίς, lepís; la, squāma) is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran (butterfly and moth) species, scales are plates on the surface o ...

, the Nangur spiny skink differs from other Australian Sphenomorphid

skinks 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 ...

in its

karyotype A karyotype is the general appearance of the complete set of metaphase chromosomes in the cells of a species or in an individual organism, mainly including their sizes, numbers, and shapes. Karyotyping is the process by which a karyotype is disce ...

of 2n=28 chromosomes, where most others have 2n=30. It is also unlike related species in that it lives in burrows, which occur in small colonies through the dry rainforest habitat. There is some indication of parental care in this species, with adults sharing burrows with juveniles.

References

{{Taxonbar , from1=Q13426141, from2=Q3017318 Monotypic lizard genera Skinks of Australia Endemic fauna of Australia Reptiles of Queensland Skinks Reptiles described in 1993 Taxa named by Jeanette Covacevich Taxa named by Patrick J. Couper