''Oligosoma smithi'', commonly known as the shore skink, short-tailed skink, Smith's ground skink,Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Oligosoma smithi'', p. 246). Smith's moco,Gray, 1845. and Smith'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 ...

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 (skinks) that is native to New Zealand.

Description

''Oligosoma smithi'' is small species of skink, growing to a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of . It is well

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...

d, and may be found in a range of colours, sometimes almost black.

Distribution and habitat

The species is native to the northern half of the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is always found near the shoreline and prefers open areas such as around driftwood at the high tide mark.

Behavior

''Oligosoma smithi'' is diurnal (active during the day) and spends most of its time hunting or basking in the sun. It eats insects and probably anything that moves and fits in its mouth. Like most New Zealand skinks, it is viviparous (reproduces by giving birth to live young).

Conservation status

As of 2012 the Department of Conservation (DOC) classified ''Oligosoma smithi'' as Not Threatened under the

New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had some ...

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 ...

, ''smithi'', is in honor of British naval officer Lt Alexander Smith who collected the original specimens in the 1840s, and presented them to his uncle

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

, who described the new species.

References

External links

3D model of a Shore skink (NOT showing natural colours)
smithi Endemic fauna of New Zealand Reptiles described in 1845 Taxa named by John Edward Gray Endemic reptiles of New Zealand {{Lygosominae-stub