water as well as in moist urban garden areas along Australia's East Coast cities. Outside of the urban environment, E. quoyii population densities are highest in open, rocky creek areas compared to creek or water areas with thick vegetation or cool forest conditions. Areas with rocky outcroppings and high availability of sunlight have a direct correlation with the abundance of E. quoyii populations. E. quoyii habitat selection is not chosen through abundance or lack of outcroppings and vegetation, but is selected through substrate temperature and necessary thermoregulation factors for the species. Distribution As the common name implies, the Eastern Water Skink is most often found in areas along Australia's temperate east coast. They have been known to be found in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. Australia's east coast has contained temperate, moist patches of rainforest that have changed over the course of millions of years and is hypothesised to have covered a much broader area of the continent prior to the arid conditions in the mid-Miocene period. The contraction, expansion and fragmentation of these swathes of rainforest are believed to have fundamentally altered the distribution of the E. quoyii species to the current specific regions along the east coast. Through phylogenetic studies into the mtDNA sequences of the E. quoyii and a comparison of the landscape evolution in Eastern Australia their distribution is suspected to be controlled by biogeographic barriers. Breaks in their population correlate with areas where the Great Escarpment is absent, this suggests that topographically low areas and the accompanying dry forestry surrounding them act as a barrier for the distribution of the Eastern Water Skink populations. References Further reading Boulenger GA (1887). Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History), Second Edition. Volume III. ... Scincidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 575 pp. + Plates I-XL. (Lygosoma quoyi, pp. 230–231). Duméril AMC, Bibron G (1839). Erpétologie générale ou Histoire naturelle complète des Reptiles. Tome cinquième [= General Herpetology or Complete Natural History of the Reptiles. Volume 5]. Paris: Roret. viii + 854 pp. (Lygosoma quoyii, replacement name, pp. 728–730). (in French). External links Eulamprus quoyii Eastern Water Skink, www.WildHerps.com. Eulamprus quoyii, JCU. Skinks, images of Australian flora and fauna. Eulamprus quoyii, Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia. Eulamprus Skinks of Australia Endemic fauna of Australia Reptiles described