Sphenomorphus tanneri GREER & PARKER, 1967

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Higher Taxa	Scincidae, Sphenomorphinae (Sphenomorphini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Tanner’s Skink
Synonym	Sphenomorphus tanneri GREER & PARKER 1967 Sphenomorphus solomonis BURT & BURT 1932 (part.) Sphenomorphus tanneri — MYS 1988: 147 Sphenomorphus tanneri — ADLER, AUSTIN & DUDLEY 1995
Distribution	Solomon Islands, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago Type locality: “at Kunua, Bougainville, Solomon Islands”
Reproduction	oviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022)
Types	Holotype: MCZ 76551
Diagnosis	Diagnosis: S. tanneri differs from all other species with 28-32 midbody scales in its species group (Table 4) in the following combination of characters: small size (snout-vent length 52 mm or less); prefrontals forming a median suture; adpressed limbs widely separated; no symmetrical pairs of nuchal scales; middorsal scales subequal rather than with the scales of the two vertebral rows transversely enlarged; dorsum rich dark brown to brownish black with small paler spots on body which often coalesce on the anterior dorsolateral line to form a distinct light line. S. tanneri is most similar in squamation to S. nigriventre de Rooij (1915: 214-215) from southern New Guinea, and S. antoniorum Smith (1927: 216-217) from Timor. It differs from S. nigriventre in being much smaller in size (snout-vent length 90 mm for nigriventre) and lacking the dorsal transverse series of light, dark-edged spots of this species. It differs from S. antoniorum in having the prefrontals meeting medially (prefrontals separated or just touching one another in antoniorum), and in lacking the light brown dorsum with a heavy clustering of darker brownish spots along the dorsolateral line (GREER & PARKER 1967).
Comment	Abundance: this is one of the species called “lost” and “rediscovered” by Lindken et al. 2024.
Etymology	named after Charles Tanner (1911-1996), Australian herpetologist specializing in snake venom.
References	Adler,G.H.; Austin,C.C. & Dudley,R. 1995. Dispersal and speciation of skinks among archipelagos in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Evolutionary Ecology 9: 529-541 - get paper here Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here Greer,A.E. & Parker,F. 1967. A new scincid lizard from the northern Solomon Islands. Breviora (275): 1-20 - get paper here Lindken T.; Anderson, C. V., Ariano-Sánchez, D., Barki, G., Biggs, C., Bowles, P., Chaitanya, R., Cronin, D. T., Jähnig, S. C., Jeschke, J. M., Kennerley, R. J., Lacher, T. E. Jr., Luedtke, J. A., Liu, C., Long, B., Mallon, D., Martin, G. M., Meiri, 2024. What factors influence the rediscovery of lost tetrapod species? Global Change Biology, 30: 1-18 - get paper here McCoy, M. 2006. Reptiles of the Solomon Islands. Pensoft Series Faunistica 57, 212 pp. McCoy, M. 2015. A Field Guide to the Reptiles of the Solomon Islands. Michael McCoy, Kuranda - get paper here Mys, Benoit 1988. The zoogeography of the scincid lizards from North Papua New Guinea (Reptilia: Scincidae). I. The distribution of the species. Bull. Inst. Roy. Sci. Nat. Belgique (Biologie) 58: 127-183 Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List Google images

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