The skink

Skink

Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae. Together with several other lizard families, including Lacertidae , they comprise the superfamily or infraorder Scincomorpha...

 genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Chioninia belongs to the subfamily Lygosominae

Lygosominae

Lygosominae is the largest subfamily of skinks in the family Scincidae. The subfamily can be divided into a number of genus-groups. If the rarely used taxonomic rank of infrafamily is employed, the genus-groups would be designated as such, but such a move would require a formal description...

. For long, this genus was included in the "wastebin taxon

Wastebin taxon

Wastebasket taxon is a term used in some taxonomic circles to refer to a taxon that has the sole purpose of classifying organisms that do not fit anywhere else. They are typically defined by their lack of one or more distinct character states or by their not belonging to one or more other taxa...

" Mabuya

Mabuya

Mabuya is a genus of long-tailed skinks nowadays restricted to species from the Americas. The American mabuyas are primarily carnivorous, though many are omnivorous. Formerly, many Old World species were placed here, as Mabuya was a kind of "wastebasket taxon"...

; it contains the Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...

 mabuyas.

Description

They are mid-sized to largish lizard

Lizard

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...

s with cylindrical bodies, tails of medium length, and well-developed arms and legs; the hands and feet have 5 toes each. Their cycloid scale

Scale (zoology)

In most biological nomenclature, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran species, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration...

s are underlaid by osteoderm

Osteoderm

Osteoderms are bony deposits forming scales, plates or other structures in the dermal layers of the skin. Osteoderms are found in many groups of extant and extinct reptiles, including lizards, various groups of dinosaurs , crocodilians, phytosaurs, aetosaurs, placodonts, and hupehsuchians...

s; the scales on the back and belly are similar in shape, but those on the back are keeled. The scales on the top of the head are generally flat and subimbricate; they have a pair of supranasal scales and the frontoparietal and prefrontal scales are paired or fused. The third supraocular scale is the hindmost one that contacts the frontal scale, and the secondary temporal scales

Temporal scales

In reptiles, the temporal scales are those scales on the side of the head between the parietal scales and the supralabial scales, and behind the postocular scales.There are two types of temporal scales:...

 touch each other. The nasal scale is undivided.

Chioninia mabuyas have 26–27 presacral vertebrae. Their palatine bone

Palatine bone

The palatine bone is a bone in many species of the animal kingdom, commonly termed the palatum .-Human anatomy:...

s are in contact with the median

Median (disambiguation)

Median has different meanings in different contexts:* Median, in statistics, a number that separates the lowest-value half and the highest-value half* Median , in geometry, a line joining a vertex of a triangle to the midpoint of the opposite side...

; the deep sphenopalatine notch separates the (toothed or toothless) pterygoid

Pterygoid processes of the sphenoid

The pterygoid processes of the sphenoid, one on either side, descend perpendicularly from the regions where the body and great wings unite.Each process consists of a medial pterygoid plate and a lateral pterygoid plate, the upper parts of which are fused anteriorly; a vertical sulcus, the...

s and extends forwards to between the centre of the eyes. The fairly small teeth are pleurodont

Pleurodont

Pleurodont is a formation of the teeth that are fused by their sides to the inner surface of the jaw bones.This formation is common in the order Squamata.-External links:* *...

. The ear

Ear

The ear is the organ that detects sound. It not only receives sound, but also aids in balance and body position. The ear is part of the auditory system....

 opening is small, and the eardrum

Eardrum

The eardrum, or tympanic membrane, is a thin membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear in humans and other tetrapods. Its function is to transmit sound from the air to the ossicles inside the middle ear. The malleus bone bridges the gap between the eardrum and the other ossicles...

s are hidden in a moderately deep ear canal

Ear canal

The ear canal , is a tube running from the outer ear to the middle ear. The human ear canal extends from the pinna to the eardrum and is about 35 mm in length and 5 to 10 mm in diameter....

.

Species

• Chioninia delalandii (Duméril & Bibron, 1839)
• Chioninia fogoensis (O'Shaughnessy, 1874)
• Chioninia geisthardti Joger, 1993
• Chioninia spinalis (Boulenger, 1906)
• Chioninia stangeri (Gray, 1845)

• Chioninia vaillantii (Boulenger, 18850 – Vaillant's Mabuya