Scincid Lizards of North America

Generally, skinks make nice subjects for scientific study. They are typically abundant where found, relatively short-lived, small, and they are not too difficult to maintain in the laboratory. For these reasons, I chose Scincella lateralis as the model organism for my thesis study and a community of skinks, including Plestiodon (Eumeces) laticeps, P. fasciatus, and P. inexpectatus, for my dissertation research.

World-wide, lizards within this family often occur in sympatry and obviously partition resources. However, they have not historically received the same attention from the scientific community as Anolis regarding this aspect of their ecology.  I believe that there is much that can be learned by using members of this family in community ecology studies.

There is no current overview of the family Scincidae available at this time. My hope is to begin compiling information for a volume on the natural history and ecology of lizards within the family Scincidae that inhabit North America. A world-wide treatment of the over 1000 species would be a potentially overwhelming undertaking and each species could not possibly be covered as thoroughly as it could be in a regional text. For now, I am at the most basic level of planning. If you have reprints, ideas, personal experience, etc.. that you would like to share regarding this subject, drop me an e-mail at cwatson@uta.edu.

I will add pictures and other documents as they become available. Information on species and distribution of skinks, as well as other Texas wildlife, can be found at the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection website. 

Current Species List of North American Skinks: