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The genus of Eumeces- skinks is due to Wiegmann, 1834. They are secretive, agile lizards with a cylindrical body covered with smooth, shiny scales.

The genus sometimes goes by the common name of "New World Skinks" or "Great Skinks" (from Greek: the prefix "eu" means "true" or "good", "mokos" means "size" or "length"), but both these common names are actually misnomers: skinks of the genus Eumeces occur also in Asia, and they're not particularly big either: while the largest skinks of this genus, the Great Plains Skink, can reach a length of some 34  cmcm redirects here, alternate uses: cm (disambiguation A centimetre (symbol cm American spelling: centimeter is an SI unit of length. One centimetre is: one-hundredth of one metre one-tenth of a decimetre ten millimetres. millimetre << centimetre << decime or about 14  inchAn inch is an Imperial unit of length. Sweden also briefly had a "decimal inch" based on the metric system: see below for more. According to some sources, the inch was originally defined informally as the distance between the tip of the thumb and the firses, most species are smaller than 20 cm including the tail. The tail makes up for about half of this total length.

Another colloquial name of these skinks is "blue-tailed skink": young Eumeces often have a brightly colored tail, which is typically blue. In most species, this coloring is lost when the animal reaches adulthood, but a few species retain the color even as adults, e.g. the Bluetail Mole Skink.

This coloring is a survival trait: it attracts a predator's attention to the tail of the animal, which will break off when grabbed. A skink thus often manages to escape and hide under some rock, log, or fallen leaves while the predator still contemplates the wildly thrashing severed tail. (This is an instance of what is called autotomy : voluntarily shedding a body part in order to escape.)

The skink regrows an autotomized tail, which then usually has the same color as the rest of the body and typically is also shorter than the original tail. In some species, regrown tails are pinkish. A regrown tail has a cartilaginousCartilage is a translucent dense connective tissue. In the adult, cartilage contains no blood vessels or nerves, and consists of a relatively homogeneous extracellular matrix, in which cells called chondrocytes are sparsely distributed. These cells are re rod for support instead of vertebraarticulations for the ribs The vertebrae (singular: vertebra) are those bones which compose the spine in vertebrates. There are 33 vertebrae in humans, including the five that are fused to form the sacrum and the four coccygeal bones. The 24 remaining aree.

Eumeces are all oviparous. The female lays eggs once a year after the breeding season in spring. The clutch size varies and is typically around 5 to 10 eggs. The hatchlings appear in late summer.

Like other reptileCrocodilia Crocodilians Rhynchocephalia Tuataras Squamata Suborder Sauria Lizards Suborder Serpentes Snakes Testudines Turtles Superorder Dinosauria Saurischia Ornithischia The reptiles are a group of vertebrate animals. Most reptiles are tetrapods, and ts, these skinks are "cold-blooded" — they are ectothermAn ectotherm is an animal that does not control its body temperature through metabolic regulation. Ectotherms depend largely on external sources of heat, such as solar radiation. As the environmental temperature increases, the animal's metabolic rate willic animals: their metabolism cannot regulate their body temperature. To warm up, they often bask in the sun. In colder climates, they hibernate in winter in burrows below the frost line. In hot climates, they are active mainly in the morning and evening, staying under cover during the hottest hours of the day to avoid overheating.

These skinks are not dangerous to humans. They are not especially aggressive, but will bite if provoked. The bite is not very painful, even to children, who may find great amusement with the spectacle of a lizard dangling from their forefinger. Whether the skink finds this experience amusing as well is doubtful. Eumeces are delicate animals whose tail breaks off easily, and herpetologists and other enthusiasts should handle them with great care, if at all.