Skink! (Patreon)

Ok, one skink down, a bunch more to go! This is Scincus scincus, the sandfish; the archetypal skink. It'll stand in for Scincidae in the cladogram (on which see below). It used to be that you'd probably only need a single skink to stand it for Scincidae. However, I have a discussion in the book (we're talking about The Big Book here) about the several family-level skink groups recently proposed by Blair Hedges, and I want a cladogram that depicts them and their proposed relationships. Ergo, another six or so skinks to go...