Prasinohaema
Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:Automatic Taxobox
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. <ref name=Austin1994>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name=Austin1994/> The benefit provided by the high pigment concentration is unknown, but one possibility is that it protects against malaria.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Geographic rangeEdit
Species in the genus Prasinohaema are endemic to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.<ref name=RDB/>
SpeciesEdit
Species in the genus include:<ref name=RDB>Template:EMBL genus. www.reptile-database.org.</ref>
- Prasinohaema flavipes Template:Small – common green tree skink
- Prasinohaema parkeri Template:Small – Parker's green tree skink
- Prasinohaema prehensicauda Template:Small – prehensile green tree skink
- Prasinohaema semoni Template:Small – Semon's green tree skink
- Prasinohaema virens Template:Small - green-blooded skink, green tree skink
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Prasinohaema.
EtymologyEdit
The specific names, parkeri and semoni, are in honor of English herpetologist Hampton Wildman Parker and German zoologist Richard Wolfgang Semon, respectively.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. Template:ISBN. (Prasinohaema parkeri, p. 200; P. semoni, p. 240).</ref>
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Greer AE (1974). "The genetic relationships of the Scincid lizard genus Leiolopisma and its relatives". Australian J. Zool. Supplementary Series 22 (31): 1-67. (Prasinohaema, new genus, p. 12).
External linksEdit
- Prasinohaema in the Reptile Database.
- Green Blood episode in O'Shea's Big Adventure.