All Angles Creatures
Squamata · ScincidaeEntry 20,235 of 21,572
Shingle-Back, Tiliqua rugosa

Reptilia · Squamata

Tiliqua rugosaGray, 1825

Shingle-Back

Photograph by Connor Margetts, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A ground-dwelling, day-active, plant-eating skink from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 350 mm snout to vent.

Also called Pinecone lizard, Shingleback Lizard, Sleepy Lizard.

Once published as Tiliqua rugosus, Trachydosaurus rugosus — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Scincidae › Tiliqua

Grows to
350mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Herbivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives up to
50years
Body length across Scincidae

Longer than 100% of all skinks anyone has measured.

100% of 1,710 species are smaller0% larger
24 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest500 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 24 to 500 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

46 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant
Conservation status
Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2017
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
50years

Carey and Judge 2000: 14.5; Slavens and Slavens 1999: 20 and 10 months, Greer 2005: 12, Greer 1989: 20, 5 0 years in the wild (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-16/life-death-and-grief-of-the-sleepy-lizard/8442252); 35 (ADW, captivity), over 50 (While et al. 2019, Whiting and While 2017), up to 35 in the wild (Robertson and Coventry 2019)

Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
33.8°C
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
33.6°C92 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
31.9–35.3°C89–96 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
350mm14 in

max 350 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
260mm10 in
Largest female · snout to vent
260mm10 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
137mm5.5 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
139mm5.5 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
1085.7g2.4 lb

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
581g1.3 lb
Body mass at hatchingmeasured
50g1.8 oz

How it lives

Diet
Herbivorous

Omnivorous (e.g., Norval and Gardner 2020, Lazzari et al. 2022) / mostly Herbivorous (93% plants, Cooper and Vitt 2002, 77.4-93.7% plants, also arhtropods, snails and bird nestlings, and fungi, Greer 2005), mostly herbivorous (Shea 1989, Shea 2006), also arthropods, carrion and snails (Shea 1989) / herbivorous (99% plants, Henle 1989c), see also Bush et al. 2010, MacMillen et al. 1989 (mostly plants, also faeces), Henle 1990 (mostly plants, also beetles and carrion), Norval et al. 2018, herbivorous (Chiacchio et al. 2020)

How it hunts
Active foraging

e.g., Chiacchio et al. 2020

Active
Diurnal

Diurnal, sometimes nocturnal (especially in draught, Greer 2005), Diurnal (e.g., SM pers. obs. 1996, 2020, Swan 2020, Chiacchio et al. 2020, Lazzari et al. 2022), Diurnal, crepuscular in summer (Norval and Gardner 2020)

Where it lives
Terrestrial

e.g., Swan et al. 2017, Foster et al. 2018, Robertson and Coventry 2019, Swan 2020, pers. obs., Chiacchio et al. 2020

Habitat
Forest, Shrubland
Biome
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Region
Australo-Pacific
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
20–500m
Range size
3,236,351km²
Density · lowest recorded
0.3per hectare
Home range · largest recorded
43,200m2

Breeding

Reproduction
Viviparous
Sex decided by
Genes, XX/XY
Average clutch
2.05eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–4eggs

1 or two, rarely 3 (Bush et al. 2010), 1-4 (Swan and Watharow 2005, Brown 2012), 1-2 (Pianka 2014, n=2, 1,2,2), 1-2, means 1.35-1.56 (Shea 1989), 1-3, mean 1.8 (Dave Chapple pers. comm., 27.2.2019 ; n=5), 1-4 normally 2 (Robertson and Coventry 2019), 1-3 (Norval and Gardner 2020)

Mean clutch
1.3–2.8eggs
Clutches in a year
1per year
Clutches a year
1per year
First breeds at
20–48months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Scincoidea
Subspecies
Tiliqua rugosa aspera GRAY 1845 Tiliqua rugosa konowi MERTENS 1958 Tiliqua rugosa rugosa GRAY 1825 Tiliqua rugosa palarra SHEA 2000
Described by
Gray
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1825
Type locality
Australia

Keeping one

4 ft 7 in × 4 ft 7 in × 2 ft 10 in(140 × 140 × 88 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 14 in (350 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 93 °F (33.8 °C).

Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

Prey size does not apply. A herbivore's diet is judged on fibre, on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and on avoiding plants high in oxalates.

The animal does not take prey items. This is established practice, not a measurement.

98kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 1,086 g, the heaviest recorded for Shingle-Back — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

Morphs

0 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 1 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.

  • Subspecies and colourbreeder consensus

    Ground colour from near-black through brown to orange and cream, and how boldly it is blotched. Follows the population an animal came from rather than a gene.

    Worth knowing. Shinglebacks pair for life. The same two animals reunite each breeding season, pairs have been recorded together for over twenty years, and a survivor has been observed remaining beside a dead partner. They also give birth to one or two very large live young rather than laying a clutch, so a female produces at most a couple of animals a year.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • — Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • — Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • — Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • — Largest male · snout to vent
  • — Largest female · shell length
  • — Largest male · shell length
  • — Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • — Largest juvenile · shell length
  • — Egg length
  • — Egg width
  • — Body mass · a typical adult
  • — Eats arthropods
  • — Eats vertebrates
  • — Eats plant matter
  • — How the young develop
  • — Gestation or incubation
  • — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • — Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • — Age at first breeding · female
  • — Mature from · youngest recorded
  • — Mature by · oldest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • — Colour on the back
  • — Pattern on the back
  • — Pupil
  • — Red List criteria
  • — Active season · shortest recorded
  • — Active season · longest recorded
  • — Density · highest recorded
  • — Active in

Others in Scincidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Tiliqua rugosa. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/tiliqua-rugosa

@misc{tiliqua_rugosa_2026,
  title  = {Tiliqua rugosa},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/tiliqua-rugosa}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.