Haacke's legless skink (Typhlosaurus braini), also known commonly as Brain's legless skink and Brain's blind legless skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to Namibia.
Etymology The specific name, braini, is in honor of paleontologist Charles Kimberlin Brain.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Typhlosaurus braini, p. 37).
Habitat The preferred natural habitat of T. braini is desert, at altitudes of .
Description T. braini is limbless, slender, and uniformly light pink. Adults have a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of .Branch, Bill (2004). Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. . (Typhlosaurus braini, p. 136 + Plate 43).
Behavior Having no limbs, T. braini "swims" in sand dunes, both under the surface and at the surface.
Diet The diet of T. braini consists of termites and insect larvae.
Reproduction T. braini is viviparous.
Predators T. braini is preyed upon by the Namib golden mole (Eremitalpa granti namibensis).
References
Further reading Broadley DG (1968). "A review of the African genus Typhlosaurus Wiegmann (Sauria: Scincidae)". Arnoldia (Rhodesia) 3 (36): 1–20. Haacke WD (1964). "Description of two new species of lizards and notes on Fitzsimonsia brevipes (FitzSimons) from the central Namib desert". Scientific Papers of the Namib Desert Research Station 25: 1–15. (Typhlosaurus braini, new species, p. 5). Haacke WD (1975). "Herpetological investigations in the sand sea of the southern Namib". Transvaal Museum Bulletin (15): 8–10. Lamb T, Biswas S, Bauer AM (2010). "A phylogenetic reassessment of African fossorial skinks in the subfamily Acontinae (Squamata: Scincidae): evidence for parallelism and polyphyly". Zootaxa 2657: 33–46.