Prasinohaema (Greek: "green blood") is agenus ofskinks characterized by having greenblood. This condition is caused by an excess buildup of thebile pigmentbiliverdin.[1]Prasinohaemaspecies have plasma biliverdin concentrations approximately 1.5-30 times greater than fish species with green blood plasma and 40 times greater than humans with greenjaundice.[1] The benefit provided by the high pigment concentration is unknown, but one possibility is that it protects against malaria.[2][3]
| Prasinohaema | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Geographic distribution ofPrasinohaema flavipes | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Scincidae |
| Subfamily: | Sphenomorphinae |
| Genus: | Prasinohaema Greer, 1974 |
Geographic range
editSpecies in the genusPrasinohaema areendemic toNew Guinea and theSolomon Islands.[4]
Species
editSpecies in the genus include:[4]
- Prasinohaema flavipes(Parker, 1936) – common green tree skink
- Prasinohaema parkeri(M.A. Smith, 1937) – Parker's green tree skink
- Prasinohaema prehensicauda(Loveridge, 1945) – prehensile green tree skink
- Prasinohaema semoni(Oudemans, 1894) – Semon's green tree skink
- Prasinohaema virens(W. Peters, 1881) - green-blooded skink, green tree skink
Nota bene: Abinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other thanPrasinohaema.
Etymology
editThespecific names,parkeri andsemoni, are in honor of EnglishherpetologistHampton Wildman Parker and German zoologistRichard Wolfgang Semon, respectively.[5]
References
edit- ^abAustin, Christopher C.; Jessing, Kevin W. (1994). "Green-blood pigmentation in lizards".Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology.109 (3):619–626.doi:10.1016/0300-9629(94)90201-1.
- ^Grens, Kerry (2018-05-16)."Lizards' Green Blood Evolved Four Times".The Scientist. Retrieved2018-05-18.
- ^Malhotra, Anita (23 May 2018)."Some lizards have green blood that should kill them – and scientists can't work out why".The Independent.
- ^abGenusPrasinohaema atThe Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
- ^Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (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
edit- Greer AE (1974). "The genetic relationships of the Scincid lizard genusLeiolopisma and its relatives".Australian J. Zool. Supplementary Series22 (31): 1-67. (Prasinohaema, new genus, p. 12).
External links
edit- Prasinohaema in theReptile Database.
- Green Blood episode inO'Shea's Big Adventure.
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