Nubeoscincus Slavenko & Tamar & Tallowin & Kraus & Allison & Carranza & Meiri 2022, GEN. NOV

NUBEOSCINCUS GEN. NOV. (CLADE III) (FIG. 5, SUPPORTING INFORMATION, FIGS S6, S 8; TABLE 1) Z o o b a n k r e g i s t r a t i o n: u r n:l s i d: z o o b a n k. org:act: 21B16380-F7EE-48CF-806C-699AAC63F491 Type species: Lobulia glacialis Greer et al., 2005. Herpetological Monographs 19: 153–179. Diagnosis: Medium-sized (adult SVL 47.4–64.0 mm) terrestrial skinks with short limbs (forelimbs 28.7– 34.4% of SVL, hindlimbs 34.6–38.6% of SVL); lobules either present or absent from anterior edge of ear opening; two pairs of chin shields in medial contact; two supralabials posterior to subocular supralabial; chin shields separated from infralabials by a row of genials; lower eyelid with window of variable size, opaqueness and scaliness; temporal region fragmented (> 3 scales); nasal scale undivided; frontoparietals unfused; viviparous; litter size up to three. Nubeoscincus differs from Prasinohaema by lacking green blood serum and tissues (Greer, 1974), a prehensile tail with a glandular tip and basally expanded subdigital lamellae. It differs from Lobulia and Papuascincus by having the chin shields separated from the infralabials by a row of genials (vs. chin shields abutting infralabials) and by having a fragmented temporal region (vs. the standard three-scale arrangement). It further differs from Papuascincus by having two pairs of chin shields in medial contact (vs. one), unfused (vs. fused) frontoparietals, a viviparous (vs. oviparous) reproductive mode and an undivided (vs. divided) nasal scale. Etymology: A combinatorial noun derived from the Latin nouns nubes, cloud, and scincus, a type of lizard, in reference to the extremely high elevations at which species in this genus occur. Species included: Nubeoscincus glacialis (Greer et al., 2005) comb. nov.; Nubeoscincus stellaris (Greer et al., 2005) comb. nov. Distribution: Both species of Nubeoscincus occur at extremely high elevations from the western New Guinea Highlands to the western (Indonesian) parts of the island and are known from extremely limited distributions: N. glacialis near Puncak Jaya in the Sudirman Range, Papua Province (Indonesia), and N. stellaris from the Star Mountains in West Sepik Province (Papua New Guinea).