Early this week a curious reptile turned up at the “top border gate” blocking the range road. It parked up on the bitumen while many photos were taken.
Three ecologists/herpetologists were consulted and all agreed this is a healthy and happy specimen of Coeranoscincus frontalis — aka the limbless snake-toothed skink.
It currently sits within the Coeranoscincus genus but ecologist Nic Gambold believes it may be on the way to getting a genus of its own. Amongst the professionals taxonomy and peer review moves slowly but carefully.
Michelle Bird’s herpetologist mate Greg Calvert commented that it’s a rare day he ever sees one of these and the good news is that after being listed as a threatened species for many years it has now been reclassified as “least concern”.
Jamie Oliver found one here in 2023 and posted pictures and a story on Paluma.org.
C. frontalis is a Wet Tropic Species, but other members of the Coeranoscincus genus are found much further south.
C. frontalis at around 29cm (nose to vent) is the longest species in the genus. Our visitor was probably between 30-35cm overall, so quite a big one.
C. frontalis hangs out in the rainforest under logs and leaf litter and worms are a favorite food. I guess the reference to snake-toothed means it’s well equipped for this task.
Unlike a number of other legless lizards which have visible vestigial legs, C. frontalis has no sign of legs.
Eventually, the specimen at the range gate decided to move on but just couldn’t get any traction on the wet bitumen and needed a lift into the verge. It then quickly headed back to the privacy of the rainforest, but not before revealing the strong orange/yellow underbelly and other attractive markings.
Story and pics by Peter Cooke,
with thanks to Nic Gambold, Laurie Ross and Greg Calvert.