Abstract
Malformations of vertebrae potentially occur across many taxa, particularly in Testudines, which are susceptible to kyphosis (dorsoventral curvature of the spine). Such malformations may stem from either genetic or environmental origins, and their prevalence and associated impacts on survival remain poorly understood. However, scoliosis (sideways curvature of the spine) is rarely reported and especially so in wild lizards. We report here on the first known case of scoliosis in a wild Australian lizard, the skink Ctenotus fallens, from Perth, Western Australia. This occurrence is the first of 805 individuals captured in a natural population monitored annually for the past 11 years. Reporting and monitoring of the frequency of such abnormalities may be a useful indicator of environmental change-induced impacts on populations.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
5-1-2022
Volume
47
Issue
3
Publication Title
Austral Ecology
Publisher
Wiley
School
School of Science
RAS ID
44403
Funders
Edith Cowan University
Grant Number
CAUL 2022
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
First Page
723
Last Page
728
Comments
Bateman, P. W., Benken, R., Glowacki, R., & Davis, R. A. (2022). A most unusual tail: Scoliosis in a wild Australian skink, and reported incidences and suggested causes of similar malformations amongst squamates. Austral Ecology, 47(3), p. 723-728. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.13155