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| Tiliqua frangens Hutchinson & Scanlon, 2009 Life reconstruction of T. frangens (greater than 2000 g) alongside a typical living skink Lampropholis guichenoti (approx. 2 g). in Thorn, Fusco, Hutchinson, Gardner, ... et Lee, 2023. Artwork by Katrina Kenny. |
Abstract
There are more species of lizards and snakes (squamates) alive today than any other order of land vertebrates, yet their fossil record has been poorly documented compared with other groups. Here, we describe a gigantic Pleistocene skink from Australia based on extensive material that includes much of the skull and postcranial skeleton, and spans ontogenetic stages from neonate to adult. Tiliqua frangens substantially expands the known ecomorphological diversity of squamates. At approximately 2.4 kg, it was more than double the mass of any living skink, with an exceptionally broad, deep skull, squat limbs and heavy, ornamented body armour. It probably filled the armoured herbivore niche that land tortoises (testudinids), absent from Australia, occupy on other continents. Tiliqua frangens and other giant Plio-Pleistocene skinks suggest that small-bodied groups that dominate vertebrate biodiversity might have lost their largest and often most morphologically extreme representatives in the Late Pleistocene, expanding the scope of these extinctions.
Keywords: megafauna, Tiliqua, Australia, Pleistocene, reptile, extinction
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| Selected skeletal elements of Tiliqua frangens. All skull elements are left lateral views except for neonate dentary (in right medial). Some elements are mirrored right elements, (a) Life reconstruction of T. frangens (greater than 2000 g) alongside a typical living skink Lampropholis guichenoti (approx. 2 g). |
Kailah M. Thorn, Diana A. Fusco, Mark N. Hutchinson, Michael G. Gardner, Jessica L. Clayton, Gavin J. Prideaux and Michael S. Y. Lee. 2023. A Giant Armoured Skink from Australia expands Lizard Morphospace and the Scope of the Pleistocene Extinctions. Proc. R. Soc. B. 20230704. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0704
