Tiliqua
Blue-tongued skinks are lizards of the Australasian genus Tiliqua, which includes some of the largest members of the skink family (Scincidae). They are commonly called blue-tongued lizards, simply blue-tongues, blueys in Australia, or panana in Indonesia. As suggested by these common names, a prominent characteristic of the genus is a large blue tongue that can be bared as bluff-warning to potential enemies. Their tongue can also deform itself and produce a thick mucus in order to catch prey. They are relatively shy in comparison with other lizards, and also significantly slower due to their shorter legs.
JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- ScincidaePBDB
- Diet
- insectivorePBDB, for Scincidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Scincidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Time the record covers
At least 7.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.
15 occurrences of Tiliqua on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
15 occurrences- Miocene7%
- Pleistocene85%
- Holocene8%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Tiliqua and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Tiliqua and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
261 taxa- Isoodon obesulus8 sites
- Pseudocheirus peregrinus8 sites
- Cercartetus nanus7 sites
- Dasyurus viverrinus7 sites
- Egernia7 sites
- Macropus rufogriseus7 sites
- Mastacomys7 sites
- Potorous platyops7 sites
- Simosthenurus occidentalis7 sites
- Antechinus flavipes6 sites
- Bettongia lesueur6 sites
- Lagorchestes6 sites
- Metasthenurus newtonae6 sites
- Perameles gunnii6 sites
- Petaurus breviceps6 sites
- Procoptodon gilli6 sites
- Pseudomys6 sites
- Rattus6 sites
- Trichosurus vulpecula6 sites
- Varanus6 sites
- Bettongia5 sites
- Cercartetus lepidus5 sites
- Macropus (Macropus) fuliginosus5 sites
- Macropus goliah5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Tiliqua, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
9 references- Pleistocene fossil vertebrate sites of the South East region of South Australia5
- Pleistocene fossil vertebrate sites of the South East region of South Australia II2
- The upper fossil fauna of the Henschke fossil cave, Naracoorte, South Australia2
- Late Holocene hunting economies in coastal southeastern Australia: Insights from the archaeological fauna of Curracurrang 1 Rockshelter, Royal National Park1
- The Encore Local Fauna, a late Miocene assemblage from Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland1
- The Curramulka local fauna: a new Late Tertiary fossil assemblage from Yorke Peninsula, South Australia1
- The crocodile from Tea Tree Cave and ziphodont crocodiles in Australia1
- Late Pleistocene Faunal Remains from Seton Rock Shelter, Kangaroo Island, South Australia1
- Small fossil vertebrates from Victoria Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia. IV. Reptiles1
Each of the 15 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Tiliqua
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ )
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Tiliqua was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itScincidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1825