Common sun skink

Eutropis multifasciata.

I couldn't find anything for the unblipped series today, in fact I couldn't find much of anything despite the pleasant temperature. More heavy rain last night which seems to have a significant effect on the bug life.

I managed to belly squirm up fairly close to this red bellied sun skink. You have seen the red belly before, back in January so decided to take this rare opportunity to present a close up of the head.

If I asked you to sketch a lizards eye, you would probably sketch a vertical slit pupil like a cat's eye, whereas most lizards have round pupils similar to our own, at least going by the images in my collection, many of them taken in bright sunlight. The reptiles that have slit pupils are nocturnal, which explains why I have none in my collection.

On most lizards, the ear drum is external, just like a frog's ear, the tympanic membrane being a visible disk, a short distance behind the eyes. Skinks have a recessed ear drum similar to our own, you can see the large hole. You can see a few scales sticking out into the ear space, possibly to break up louder sounds, but more likely to prevent ingress.

Some lizards have no visible ear, like snakes. They still have their complement of inner ear structure and can hear by vibrations picked up through contact with the ground and direct to their body.

Many reptiles have forked tongues, picking up particles from the ground and in the air and wiping them on two sensors in the roof of the mouth. If the taste is stronger on one side, the reptile knows which way to move in its pursuit of prey. The common sun skink does not have a forked tongue, but nasal pits are visible. However, I could not find any information on my search.

It is quite amazing the similarities between reptile anatomy of these sensory organs and our own; sight, inner ear structure and nasal chemical receptors, all very similar.

Dave