Microsatellite loci from the Cunningham's Skink (Egernia cunninghami)

Social structuring and within-group genetics are rarely studied in lizards, but are of considerable conservation importance. In particular, the impact of anthropogenic habitat fragmentation upon fine-scale genetic patterns is largely unknown. This is being investigated for Egernia cunninghami, a species with generally low dispersal and high levels of within-group relatedness. Estimating parentage in wild populations in which close relatives may be candidate parents requires high levels of exclusionary power. The five characterized loci possess 13-29 alleles, and high polymorphic information contents (0.800-0.917) and add greatly to the markers, cloned from related skinks, currently available.