A tale of a wiggly tail: first osteological examination of the kinked-tail phenomenon in a wild-caught skink, Sphenomorphus melanopogon (Duméril & Bibron, 1839), from Timor-Leste

We provide a detailed description of “kinked-tail” malformation in a wild-caught skink, Sphenomorphus melanopogon, from Timor-Leste. While this type of vertebral pathology has been most frequently reported for terrarium-reared animals, it also exists in the wild. Regardless, there have not been any analyses of this condition that describe details of internal morphology. Malformations of caudal vertebrae in this individual included undulations in both frontal and sagittal planes, beginning at caudal vertebra 10 and continuing for ten successive vertebrae. We observed these malformations, to which the term kyphoscoliosis can be applied, almost exclusively in individual caudal vertebrae and rarely in the joints between them, revealing that the bones and not the intervertebral regions play the most important role in producing the kinked appearance. While we are unable to pinpoint the causes of the deformity, further detailed osteological studies of this phenomenon in captive and wild lizards may help to elucidate the condition and provide additional insights for clinical practitioners.

Citation

Kaiser, H., O'Shea, M., Koppetsch, T. and Bernstein, J.M. (2025) A tale of a wiggly tail: first osteological examination of the kinked-tail phenomenon in a wild-caught skink, Sphenomorphus melanopogon (Duméril & Bibron, 1839), from Timor-Leste. Herpetology Notes, 18, pp. 743–753.

Type

Journal article

Language

en

Description

© 2025 The Authors. Published by the Societas Europaea Herpetologica. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://www.biotaxa.org/hn/article/view/82307

ISSN

2071-5773

Collections

Faculty of Science and Engineering