Prickly forest skink
| Prickly forest skink | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Scincidae |
| Genus: | Gnypetoscincus Wells & Wellington, 1983 |
| Species: | G. queenslandiae |
| Binomial name | |
| Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae (De Vis, 1890) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The prickly skink, or prickly forest skink (Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae), is a morphologically and genetically distinctive species of skink endemic to rainforests of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, in north-eastern Australia. Unlike most small skinks, which have smooth scales, this species has rough, ridged and pointed scales. These keeled scales may be an adaptation to its high-rainfall habitat, to its microhabitat in rotting logs, or to camouflage it when moving through forest leaf-litter.