| The term "vestigial" refers to the state in which a body part has either become much smaller, nearly lost or non-functional compared to its past homolog over an evolutionary time period. Limb reduction and loss, with the reduction of limbs and girdle skeleton to a vestigial state, has occurred several times independently within the taxon Squamata. The vestigial appendicular skeletons of the species examined here have not been described before now, with the exceptions of Dopasia harti and Ophisaurus ventralis . Here I describe the vestigial limbs and girdles of five lizards from the family Scincidae: Eumecia anchietae, Melanoseps ater, Voeltzkowia lineata, Voeltzkowia mira and Nessia didacyta, and two lizards from the family Anguidae: Dopasia harti and Ophisaurus ventralis. Only the pectoral regions for E. anchietae, M. ater, V. lineata, V. mira are described here, both the pectoral and pelvic regions for D. harti, O. ventralis and N. didacyta are described here. |
