The Atlas Mountain skink (''Chalcides montanus'') is a species of
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 ...
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
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. It separates the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range. It stretches around through Moroc ...
in
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
.
[ It was originally described as '']Chalcides ocellatus
''Chalcides ocellatus'', or the ocellated skink (also known as the eyed skink or gongilo) is a species of skink found in Greece, southern Italy, Malta, Lebanon, and parts of northern Africa.Arikan, ''et al.''"An Investigation on the Blood-Serum P ...
'' ssp.
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
''montanus''.[
]
References
Chalcides
Skinks of Africa
Reptiles of North Africa
Endemic fauna of Morocco
Reptiles described in 1931
Taxa named by Franz Werner
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