AN AUSTRALIAN skink is the first reptile known to live in a stable nuclear family, where two parents live alongside their juvenile offspring.
Some mammal and bird species, and even a few fish species, are found in similar family units. But the discovery that a reptile also lives this way suggests that the nuclear family could be the ideal arrangement for a whole range of animals.
Dave O’Connor and Rick Shine from Sydney University studied more than 200 black rock skinks at a site in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Some 83 per cent of all the social groups containing more than one adult…
