Number of Maxillary Teeth in Scincid Lizards: Lineage Characteristics and Ecological Implications

Abstract

Abstract The relationship between the mean number of maxillary teeth and the mean head length was investigated among 67 species of skinks, each represented by five large adults, and chosen to represent skink diversity. Only 52.4% of the potentially available morphological space defined by the four coordinates representing the ends of the range of these two variables is actually occupied by the datapoints for the species. There is no relationship between the two variables within skinks as a whole or within major lineages. The most primitive species falls close to the center of the cloud of datapoints. The ratio of the mean number of maxillary teeth to the mean head length is significantly greater in the Eugongylus group of eugongyline skinks than it is in the sphenomorphine skinks. Considering the number of teeth on other bones, these differences may be even greater than indicated by the number of teeth on only the maxilla. Because these two groups occur in broad sympatry in the Australian region, the diff...