Florida sand skink
species of reptile
The Florida sand skink (Plestiodon reynoldsi) is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae, the skinks. It is endemic to Florida in the United States.
Taxonomy and etymology
It was described as a new genus and new species by Leonhard Stejneger in 1910 and named in honor of a certain Mr. A.G. Reynolds of Gulfport, Florida, who had collected the holotype.
Description
A unique lizard adapted to an underground existence, the Florida sand skink measures 10 to 13 cm (4 to 5 in) in total length and is a gray to tan color. Its forelegs are tiny and bear only one toe each; its hindlegs are small and have two toes. The tail comprises about half of the animal's total length. The sand skink has a wedge-shaped head, a partially countersunk lower jaw, body grooves into which the forelegs can be folded, and small eyes which have transparent windows in the lower lids. These features enable the lizard to move through loose sand.
Diet
The diet consists of surface-dwelling invertebrates, including termites, spiders, and the larvae of antlions and beetles.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Florida sand skink” as species of reptile. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of reptile. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12266073. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1910.
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This entry incorporates text from “Florida sand skink” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.