Concinnia queenslandiae

Description

The prickly skink, or prickly forest skink (Concinnia queenslandiae), is a morphologically and genetically distinctive species of skink endemic to rainforests of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, in north-eastern Australia. Unlike most small skinks, which have smooth scales, this species has rough, ridged and pointed scales. These keeled scales may be an adaptation to their high-rainfall habitat, to their microhabitat in rotting logs, or to camouflage when moving through forest leaf-litter.