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Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
from the August 23, 2018 Newsletter issued from Rancho Regenesis in the woods ±4kms west of Ek Balam Ruins; elevation ~40m (~130 ft), N~20.876°, W~88.170°; central Yucatán, MÉXICO
VIVIPAROUS SKINK
While reading on the hut's porch, movement on a nearby rock caught my eye, the camera was near, so I got the picture shown below:
The 10inch long (25cm), slender little lizard was moving fast, poking his nose into every hole and beneath every leaf, so I got only that one picture. A blown-up part of that image better showing the creature's front end is seen below:
Bearing such a well defined white line along the side, that passes beneath the ear hole and the eye, and with the lizard's unusually slender form, it was easy to match our picture with one in Jonathan Campbell's Amphibians and Reptiles of Northern Guatemala, the Yucatán, and Belize, identified as the Viviparous Skink, Mabuya brachypoda.
On the Internet it was hard to find mention of the genus Mabuya. Now the species is known as MARISORA BRACHYPODA, and no commonly used English name for it has been agreed on, so I'm using Campbell's Viviparous Skink name. The term "viviparous" describes the fact that this species, like all reptiles, produces eggs, but the eggs hatch inside the mother so that shell-free, wiggling young are born, like baby mammals.
Viviparous Skinks are distributed from southern Mexico through Central America to Costa Rica. Campbell writes that the species lives mostly on the ground but readily climbs, and often is seen sunning on fence posts and lower tree limbs. "Almost invariably, the lizard is near dense piles of rubbish, logs, or thick vegetation into which it can escape if disturbed, but it seems to prefer relatively dry microhabitats," he adds, also noting that often it's spotted around human habitations, sometimes even in thatch roofs. All that fits our environment perfectly, so the little fellow must feel at home here.
If you're wondering why the Viviparous Skink isn't an anole, gecko, whiptail, racerunner or iguana, you might want to review our "Types of Lizard" page at www.backyardnature.net/lizkinds.htm
A more technical discussion of "Lizard Classification" is available at www.backyardnature.net/lizclass.htm