Description: The prairie skink is a small lizard, reaching a total length (body + tail) of about 13 to 22 cm (5 to nearly 9 inches). Adult prairie skinks are brown or tan on the back and darker on the sides and have several thin lighter stripes along the sides and the back. Juveniles have bright blue tails, the color of which fades when they mature.

Habitat: The prairie skink lives in sandy habitat or open grasslands with loose soil, preferably with some rocks providing shelter and places to bask in the sun, and close to a water source.

Range: USA (Texas); Terra typica: USA: Palo Pinto, Palo Pinto, County, Texas;

Found in these States: TX

Diet: They feed on small invertebrates, preferring spiders, crickets, and grasshoppers, but avoiding ants.

Reproduction: Clutch size is about 4-18; averages 7-9 in Minnesota, 8 in Kansas, 11 in Nebraska, 9 in Texas; larger females produce larger clutches. Eggs hatch in 1-2 months (by mid-July in Iowa). Sexually mature in 2 years. Female attends eggs until shortly after hatching.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, tolerance of a degree of habitat modification, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.

Taxonomy: Plestiodon septentrionalis pallidus has been treated as a subspecies of P. obtusirostris.