NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Short-necked Skink
Trachylepis brevicollis (Wiegmann, 1837)
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.
Specimen of Trachylepis brevicollis displayed in dorsal view. Collected from the Tana River, Coast Province, Kenya, Africa. Information provided with the permission of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th and Constitution Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20560-0193.
Smithsonian Institution - Museums of Natural History · CC0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Trachylepis brevicollis, the short-necked skink or Sudan mabuya, is a species of skink in the family Scincidae. It is distributed across northeastern and eastern Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula.
Wikipedia contributors, Trachylepis brevicollis; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:18:30.288848+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Trachylepis brevicollis (Wiegmann, 1837)
- Name authority
- (Wiegmann, 1837)
- Common name
- Short-necked Skink
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Scincidae
- Genus
- Trachylepis
- 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
- subfamilyMabuyinae
- genusTrachylepis
- speciesTrachylepis brevicollis (Wiegmann, 1837)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Trachylepis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Adamastor SkinkTrachylepis adamastor Ceriaco, 2015 | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Senegal MabuyaTrachylepis affinis (Gray, 1839) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Pemba Island SkinkTrachylepis albotaeniata (Boettger, 1913) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gold-spotted MabuyaTrachylepis aureopunctata (Grandidier, 1867) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Bayon's MabuyaTrachylepis bayonii (Bocage, 1872) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Boettger'sMabuyaTrachylepis boettgeri (Boulenger, 1887) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Boulenger's MabuyaTrachylepis boulengeri (Sternfeld, 1911) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cape SkinkTrachylepis capensis (Gray, 1831) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Casuarina Island SkinkTrachylepis casuarinae (Broadley, 1974) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Eastern Sand SkinkTrachylepis depressa (Peters, 1854) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Trachylepis dumasi (Nussbaum & Raxworthy, 1995) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| African Five-lined SkinkTrachylepis quinquetaeniata (Lichtenstein, 1823) | 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 |
|---|---|
| Euprepes brevicollis Wiegmann, 1837 Wiegmann, 1837 | synonym |
| Eupressis perrottetii Blanford, 1870 Blanford, 1870 | synonym |
| Mabuya somalica Calabresi, 1915 Calabresi, 1915 | synonym |
| Euprepes pyrrhocephalus Wiegmann, 1837 Wiegmann, 1837 | synonym |
| Mabuia rotschildi Mocquard, 1905 Mocquard, 1905 | synonym |
| Scincus cryptocephalus Ehrenberg ex Stresemann, 1954 Ehrenberg ex Stresemann, 1954 | synonym |
| Mabuia pulchra Matschie, 1893 Matschie, 1893 | synonym |
| Mabuya brevicollis Calabresi, 1915 Calabresi, 1915 | synonym |
| Mabuya chanleri Stejneger, 1893 Stejneger, 1893 | 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=Trachylepis&species=brevicollis 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.
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:57RDM. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.