THE SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTION OF THE SUBSAHARAN AFRICA, SEYCHELLES, AND MAURITIUS SCININE SCINID LIZARDS ALLEN E. GREER ABSTRACT Skull osteology and external morphology form the basis for a review of the relation-ships of the seineine scincid lizards of sub-saharan Africa, the Seychelles and Mau-ritius. There appear to be three natural groups in this area. ProsceJotes and Sepsina constitute the most primitive group in sub-saharan Africa, while Scelotes, Melanoseps, Scolecoseps and Typhlacontias form a second, perhaps more advanced group. The scincines of the Seychelles comprise two taxa worthy of generic rank (Pamelaesc in-cus and Janetaescincus, new genera) and together with the monotypic Mauritius genus Gongylomorphus form a third natural group. Evolutionary and zoogeographic relationships within each of the three groups are discussed in some detail, but only a passing attempt is made to relate them with each other or with the large, but virtually unknown complex of scincines on Madagas-car. In general, this complex seems to have more in common with the mainland Prosce-Jotes and Sepsina and the three genera of the Seychelles and Mauritius than with the mainland Scelotes and its relatives. In addi-tion to the systematic, evolutionary, and zoogeographic discussions there is also a key to the genera of scincines inhabiting mainland Africa south of the Sahara. INTRODUCTION Evidence has been presented elsewhere (Greer, 1970) demonstrating that at the subfamily level the Scincines are imme-diately ancestral to the other three sub-families of skinks. With the exception of the largest genus (Eumeces, 46 species) in the subfamily and the monotypic Neoseps of Florida, the Scincinae are entirely Old World in distribution and, again with the exception of the widespread Eumeces, show a relict distribution in southcentral and eastern Asia (Fig. 1). For example, the only seineine, with the exception of Eu-meces, in eastern Asia is Bracliymeles ( 13 species) in the Philippines. As one moves west through Asia, no other scincines are encountered until one reaches India, where the monotypic Barkudia is known from the regions around Chilka Lake and Calcutta. Further south in India there is a single species of Sepsophis in the central and southern part of the subcontinent and two genera, Nessia (8 species) and Chalcido-seps ( 1 species ) , on Ceylon. Moving still further west, it is not until one reaches Southwest Asia and the Medi-terranean area that one encounters widely distributed genera with many species: e.g., Ophiomorus (9 species); Scincus (12 spe-cies ) ; and Chalcides ( 14 species ) . And it is only south of the Sahara Desert in Africa, Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean that the scincines become an important part of the skink fauna ( 76 of the 136 species of non-Eumeces scincines occur in this area). Two of the other three subfamilies are also found in subsaharan Africa. The Acon-tinae with approximately 15 species and the Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 140(1): 1-24, June, 1970
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