Biology of Skinks of the Genus Lampropholis

(Hardback)

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This book provides the first detailed summary of the biology of the genus Lampropholis, also known as Garden Skinks, Grass Skinks, Litter Skinks, Penny Lizards, and Sunskinks.

This genus, an Australian endemic, includes two common, widespread species (one of which has been inadvertently introduced into Hawaii, New Zealand, and Lord Howe Island) and a group of satellite species with restricted geographic distributions. Much information about these lizards resides in obscure articles and unpublished theses. This book integrates those scattered data, providing the first comprehensive account of all aspects of the biology of the genus, including its life history, distribution, dispersal, ecology, behaviour, thermal biology, physiology, diet, predators, parasites and diseases, population biology, genetics, threats and conservation, taxonomy, phylogeny, and evolution.

This volume is essential reading for biologists in general and especially herpetologists, conservationists, naturalists, park rangers, managers of natural resources and wildlife, policy-makers involved with conservation, and anyone with an interest in Australian wildlife.

Author Bio

Shelley Burgin is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Western Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In the mid-1970s, as a mature-aged student, she undertook an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies at Griffith University, Queensland. Her Masters thesis (University of Papua New Guinea) focused on crocodiles and her PhD thesis (Macquarie University) was on the taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships of Lampropholis. In 2001, she was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW and in 2018 as a Member (General Division) of the Order of Australia. She has in excess of 200 publications.

Harold Heatwole is Adjunct Professor at the University of New England, NSW, Australia, and Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University, USA. He has four doctorates and 376 scientific publications to his credit and edited Ecology in Australia (7 volumes) and Amphibian Biology (13 volumes). He was President of the Great Barrier Reef Committee (19801982), Foundation President of the Australian Coral Reef Society (19821983), and Editor-in-Chief of Integrative and Comparative Biology (20102014).