• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Need skink clarification

L

Leopard Gecko Guy

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Yes I was wanting to know if some1 could give me information on these skink species as to how many yellow stripes they have and if they are related to the African Blue Tailed skink (Trachylepis quinquetaeniata).

- Trachylepis laevis(Angolan Blue-Tailed Skink )

- Eutropis quadricarinata(Beautiful Mabuya of four-lined mabuya)


If any help, I would really appreciate it, as I'm doing a research project on these skinks. Thanks and hope you reply.


Sincerely, Chad Baker
 
I'm sorry, but due to my service plan with US. Cellular, I'm not able to use that connection or else I have to owe them $800 a month.
 
Hello Chad,

I study the evolution of the group of skinks you are referring to (family Lygosomatinae). Originally, this somewhat cosmopolitan group of skinks was classified under the generic name "Mabuya" which was later subdivided with the name "Mabuya" retained for South and Central American species, "Trachylepis" assigned to species from Africa, Madagascar & the Middle East, "Eutropis" for Asian species, and "Chioninia" refers to a handful of former mabuyine skinks found on the Cape Verde Islands (see Bauer, 2003).

The Angolan blue tailed skink is a beautiful but secretive skink that lives in rock crevices in arid southern Angola. It has a flattened body and orange head with a pointed snout that fades into an electric blue body overlaid with black latticework (photo: http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000YpClPevebHs/s/750/750/angolan-blue-tailed-skink.jpg). This animals closest relatives are other Trachylepis skinks from mainland Africa (>80 sp.).

The closest relatives to Trachylepis skinks is disputable at the moment. Molecular studies have suggested Mabuya and Chioninia, where as groups like Eutropis and Eumecia are possibly more distantly related, but still in the same subfamily.

Although skinks such as Trachylepis margaritifer, Trachylepis quinquetaeniata, Plestiodon and Eutropis quadricarinata are all within the same family (Scincidae) and share a similar "blue tail, orange head, black stripes" color pattern, it is not due to shared ancestry, and they are not closely related. Instead, something about this color pattern is ecologically advantageous (blue tails attract predators away from the important parts of the body like the head, or orange heads may lure prey closer to the mouth!). They have all independently evolved similar color pattern-strategies for survival across the globe. This "convergent evolution" is seen in many other reptiles, for example, the Eastern Hognose snake (Heterodon) found in the United States has an upturned snout and enlarged rostral scale for digging up eggs to eat and burrowing. The Madagascan hognose snake (Heteroliodon madagascariensis) has the exact same morphology for doing the same exact thing in Madagascar, but is in no way closely related to the Hognose snakes of the eastern US.

hope this helped!
 
Not wanting to make a thing out of this at all, so feel free to let it go, but as far as I know threads don't expire - sometimes people chip in years after the original post, especially if it's an interesting topic.

Anyway I have nothing to contribute about skinks, so I'll let this lie now
 
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