NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Taylor’s Ground Skink
Scincella silvicola (Taylor, 1937)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Scincella silvicola is a species of skink that lives in the southern Sierra Madre Oriental and northern Sierra Madre de Oaxaca of Mexico, from Puebla to Oaxaca. It occurs primarily in dry, scrubby areas and forests, especially pine forests. It is generally a common species and faces no major threats. It is most likely ovoviviparous.
Like all members of the genus Scincella, S. silvicola is long and cylindrical, with short limbs. Its color is light bronze or cream, and it has a dark stripe originating at the snout and running dorsolaterally across its body. Its maximum snout-vent length is about 53 millimeters.
Wikipedia contributors, Scincella silvicola; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T09:34:09.603490+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Scincella silvicola (Taylor, 1937)
- Name authority
- (Taylor, 1937)
- Common name
- Taylor’s Ground Skink
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Scincidae
- Genus
- Scincella
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderAutarchoglossa
- familyScincidae
- subfamilySphenomorphinae
- genusScincella
- speciesScincella silvicola (Taylor, 1937)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Scincella. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Huulien Ground SkinkScincella apraefrontalis Nguyen, Nguyen, Böhme & Ziegler, 2010 | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Ground SkinkScincella assata (Cope, 1864) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Barbour's Ground SkinkScincella barbouri (Stejneger, 1925) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Boettger's Ground SkinkScincella boettgeri (Van Denburgh, 1912) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Forbe’s Forest Ground SkinkScincella forbesorum (Taylor, 1937) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Van Denburgh's Ground SkinkScincella formosensis (Van Denburgh, 1912) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cope’s Forest Ground SkinkScincella gemmingeri (Cope, 1864) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Scincella huanrenensis Zhao & Huang, 1982 | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Large- eared ground skinkScincella macrotis (Steindachner, 1867) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Scincella potanini (Günther, 1896) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Burma Smooth SkinkScincella punctatolineata (Boulenger, 1893) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Double subdigital-pads skinkScincella rara (Darevsky & Orlov, 1997) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Leiolopisma silvicolum Taylor, 1937 Taylor, 1937 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Scincella&species=silvicola Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:4VK48. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.