Аннотация:A new Forest Skink, belonging to the Sphenomorphus stellatus complex, was discovered in the unique forested sandstone ecosystem of the Khorat Plateau in northeastern Thailand. This new skink was recovered as the sister species to the other Indochinese skinks, S. phuquocensis + S. annamiticus, based on a phylogeny using 1,184 base pairs of 12S and 16S. A multiple factor analysis (MFA) based on a concatenated dataset comprised of size-corrected morphometric, meristic, and color pattern characters revealed this species’ isolated position in morphospace with respect to all other species in the S. stellatus complex. This is the fourth endemic lizard species reported from the Khorat Plateau and adds to a growing list of endemic species across a broad range of taxa. As such, this region desperately needs legal protection and increased field-based systematic research to uncover more unrealized species on this plateau in need of description and protection.
