Prasinohaema

Prasinohaema
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Sauria
Infraorder: Scincomorpha
Family: Scincidae
Subfamily: Sphenomorphinae
Genus: Prasinohaema
Greer, 1974

Prasinohaema (Greek: "green blood") is a genus of skinks characterized by having green blood. This condition is caused by an excess buildup of the bile pigment biliverdin.[1] Prasinohaema species have plasma biliverdin concentrations approximately 1.5-30 times greater than fish species with green blood plasma and 40 times greater than humans with green jaundice.[1]

Geographic range

Species in the genus Prasinohaema are endemic to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.[2]

Species

Species in the genus include:[2]

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Prasinohaema.

Etymology

The specific names, parkeri and semoni, are in honor of English herpetologist Hampton Wildman Parker and German zoologist Richard Wolfgang Semon, respectively.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Austin CC, Jessing KW (1994). "Green-blood pigmentation in lizards". Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 109A (3): 619-626.
  2. 1 2 "Prasinohaema ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  3. ↑ Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Prasinohaema parkeri, p. 200; P. semoni, p. 240).

Further reading


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