help identify my new blue tongued skink

[Jeff]

I have been intentionally avoiding replying to this thread because this is a very difficult skink to analyze. I was hoping that Andrew, Ray, or James would respond because they probably have more knowledge about "American bts" than anyone. That is important because what we have now, and what has been here in the past is only a small slice of what exists in the wild. Those guys have seen everything that has been here for the last 20+ years. Andrew's response is exactly what I expected, and I agree with it.

My first thoughts on this skink were, "This is an obvious eastern, EXCEPT for the fact that the tail is even fatter than an eastern tail"! I had the same thought as Richard - the tail looks like a blotchy. That is a VERY fat tail. The chances of a blotchy x eastern cross in the U.S. is about one in a billion, and I am certainly not suggesting that, it is just a crazy tail. That is also the ONLY thing on the entire skink that looks even slightly nigrolutea.

As I look at the skink more, I realize that I would consider it slightly overweight. Not in an unhealthy way, but in a way that makes it a bit more difficult to ID. If this skink were to lose some weight, I have a feeling that the tail would take on the look of a more typical eastern. Because of that, I am leaning toward saying that I believe it is a "pure" eastern. Pure is a loaded term. In this case, all I really mean by it is that I don't see anything in this skink that makes it obvious that it has anything but "eastern" in it. Northerns and easterns are so closely related that they could easily be crossed and produce offspring that looked like 100% one or the other, meaning that this skink could have siblings that look 100% northern. There is just no way to know for sure unless you know the complete history of the animal.

This is a ridiculously interesting and cool skink in my opinion. I would absolutely love to know the whole history of it. I would also really like to see a picture of it's belly. If I was told I HAD to breed it to one of my skinks, I would definitely pair it with an eastern.

[Richard.C]

Belly looks clear from what u can see,another thought i had when i first saw pic,the black on flanks reminded me of those patterless crosses bruno was breeding,somehow the lose patterning but keep black down there flank

Thats something ive never seen on an eastern,well except the melanistics,being all black,lol

Andrew used to say alot of eastern in the states had been muddied with northern blood,so could very well be a throw off of that

I still see mostly northern looking at it though,minus its tail