Mabuya

Mabuya is a genus of long-tailed skinks restricted to species from various Caribbean islands. They are primarily carnivorous, though many are omnivorous. The genus is viviparous, having a highly evolved placenta that resembles that of eutherian mammals.[1] Formerly, many Old World species were placed here, as Mabuya was a kind of "wastebasket taxon". These Old World species are now placed in the genera Chioninia, Eutropis, and Trachylepis. Under the older classification, the New World species were referred to as "American mabuyas", and now include the genera Alinea, Aspronema, Brasiliscincus, Capitellum, Maracaiba, Marisora, Varzea, and Copeoglossum.

Mabuya
Dominica skink Mabuya dominicana
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Scincidae
Subfamily: Mabuyinae
Genus: Mabuya
Fitzinger, 1826
Species

see text

The ancestors of the genus are believed to have rafted across the Atlantic from Africa during the last 9 million years.[2]

Species

Listed alphabetically by specific name.[3]

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Mabuya.

References
  1. Viviparity in lizards, snakes and mammals. Map of Life, Convergent Evolution Online.
  2. Carranza S, Arnold EN (2003-08-05). "Investigating the origin of transoceanic distributions: mtDNA shows Mabuya lizards (Reptilia, Scincidae) crossed the Atlantic twice". Systematics and Biodiversity. 1 (2): 275–282. doi:10.1017/S1477200003001099.
  3. Mabuya. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading
  • Fitzinger LI (1826). Neue Classification der Reptilien nach ihren natürlichen Verwandtschaften. Nebst einer Verwandtschafts-tafel und einem Verzeichnisse der Reptilien-Sammlung des K.K. Zoologischen Museums zu Wien. Vienna: J.G. Heubner. 5 unnumbered + 67 pp. + one plate. (Mabuya, new genus, p. 23). (in German and Latin).


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