REPTILIA: SQUAMATA: SCINCIDAE: Scincus

Scincus scincus

Sandfish

Photo & text by Dr. Robert Sprackland.

Range: Northern Africa east into Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran.

Diagnosis: A large-headed lizard with smooth scales, an awl-shaped snout, and a cylindrical tail that is shorter than the head-body length.

Description: Body covered in large, smooth, overlapping scales. Head awl-shaped, strongly triangular in profile, with sunken lower jaw. Eyes high on side of head, ear opening absent. Limbs well-developed and pentadactyl. Digits with fringes along lower surfaces. 

Upper surfaces yellow, with nine or ten thin brown cross-bands. Head gray-brown, tail gray. Side and lower surfaces white.

Natural History: The sandfish is so named because of its ability to swim in soft desert sands. The skinks are typically buried, but surface to feed. They feel vibrations of insects and other small creatures walking on the surface, then ambush prey from below (much like the sand worms in the novel Dune). These lizards lie in very hot deserts and are active for limited periods in the sunlight.

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