Venezuelan mountain skink

The Venezuelan mountain skink (Orosaura nebulosylvestris) is a reptile, a member of the skink family, Scincidae. It is monotypic in the genus Orosaura.

Venezuelan mountain skink
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Scinciformata
Infraorder:	Scincomorpha
Superfamily:	Lygosomoidea
Family:	Mabuyidae
Genus:	Orosaura Hedges & Conn, 2012
Species:	O. nebulosylvestris
Binomial name
Orosaura nebulosylvestris (Miralles, Rivas, Bonillo, Schargel, Barros, García-Perez & Barrio-Amorós, 2009)
Synonyms
Mabuya nebulosylvestris Miralles et al., 2009

Range and distribution

They are distributed throughout the highlands of the Venezuelan coastal range and the Andean Cordillerea of Mérida. The species is found in open areas at the edges of cloud forest, shrubby vegetation of subparamos, and rural gardens.^[2]

Anatomy

This genus is characterized by two or four frontoparietal (rarely five or six), one row of nuchals, 48-56 dorsals, 27-38 ventrals, (these counts where by different methods, dorsolateral stripes, a dark lateral stripe, and dark ventral striping. Orosaura has what appears to be a pair of irregular, dark nape stripes or lines of spots immediately adjacent to the pale dorsolateral stripes.^[3] The maximum body size for this species is 97 mm. This species is less prone to decline due to their relatively wide range.